2 sensory and rational cognition. Sensual and rational in knowledge. Forms of rational knowledge

The science of knowledge and cognition identifies various forms of sensory cognition. The first of them is sensations, i.e. reflection of individual properties, individual characteristics of objects and processes. The second form of sensory cognition is perception, which gives a holistic reflection of objects in the diversity of their properties. The most complex form of sensory cognition is representation, since there is no longer a specific object that is reflected. But, as in perception, a specific image of the object remains, with the only difference that this image is somewhat “averaged”, it is affected by similar images of the past and it loses its unique and random features. Representation is characterized by memory, its “revival”.

Often, imagination also acts in representation: with its help, a person is able to restore what has already happened, highlight individual aspects of an object, and combine them. As a result, real ideas can be obtained that a person is able to implement in practice (for example, an idea about a new car design), or unreal ideas (for example, about a mermaid, a brownie, a centaur, etc.).

In the process of rational (logical) cognition, such forms as concept, judgment, and inference are used (sometimes this includes hypotheses, theories, and methods).

You already know that a concept is a thought in which the general and essential characteristics of things are recorded, for example, the concepts of “person”, “airplane” are not limited to the image of a particular person or the brand of an aircraft.

A more complex form of rational cognition is judgment - a thought that affirms or denies something about the objects of cognition. Judgment reflects the connections that exist between objects and phenomena of reality or between their properties and characteristics.

On the basis of concepts and judgments, inferences are formed, which are reasoning during which a new judgment (conclusion or conclusion) is logically derived. Rational cognitive ability (as well as sensory ability - at the level of ideas) is associated with thinking. Thinking, in turn, is connected with speech. Speech is carried out using the tongue. Language is a system of special signs that have a prescribed meaning. Signs can be sounds, pictures, drawings, gestures, etc. The prescribed meaning is the content assigned to a particular sign. The connection between meaning and sign is different in different languages ​​(for example, words meaning house or person sound and are written differently in different languages). A sign usually acts as a means of cognition, although it can also be an object if we are talking about a special direct study of signs and sign systems.

In their views on the relationship between sensory and rational knowledge, the positions of sensualists and rationalists are distinguished. Sensualism (from the Latin sensus - feeling) puts the sensory cognitive ability in first place in the process of cognition, as opposed to reason. Sensualists believe: “There is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the feelings.”

Rationalists take the opposite line. They recognize the basis of human cognition and behavior as reason (from the Latin ratio - reason), denying feelings as a source of reliable primary information, citing the inaccuracy and limitation of information about the world obtained through the senses.

Who is right?

Of course, the cognitive ability of the senses is limited, but it must be recognized that this is the only channel through which a person is directly connected with material reality. Without sensory knowledge, primary orientation in the world is impossible, comprehension of beauty and harmony is impossible.

Rational knowledge, in its interaction with practice, is able to overcome the shortcomings of sensory knowledge of reality and ensure virtually limitless progressive development of knowledge. However, rational knowledge is impossible without sensory knowledge. For example, in physical theories, a significant role is played by the sensory-visual side (in the form of diagrams, drawings and other images). In other words, in real cognition, the sensory and rational are interconnected and act as a single whole. This unity is not at all disturbed by the fact that in some cognitive situations the sensory principle predominates, and in others the rational principle predominates.

Cognition is a complex process in which two levels can be distinguished: sensory and rational.

Rational cognition is the process of understanding the surrounding world through natural perception and mental activity. Forms of rational knowledge have several common characteristics:

• reflect certain general characteristics and properties of cognizable objects;
• abstracted from individual features of objects;
• are determined by the subject’s point of view on the knowable reality (as well as by the configuration of the system apparatus of empirical cognition and the cognitive means used, such as observation, experimentation and information processing);
• directly related to the language (in the broad sense) of expression of thought.

Basic forms of rational knowledge

The main forms of rational cognition include the following types of mental activity: concept, judgment and inference, as well as more complex forms, hypotheses, etc.

1. A concept, through abstraction, generalizes objects of a certain kind, type or class according to a set of characteristics. Concepts lack the sensual and visual.
2. In a judgment, something is affirmed or denied through the connection of concepts.
3. An inference is the result of reasoning, during which a new one is logically deduced from one or more judgments.
4. A hypothesis arises as an assumption expressed in concepts and giving a possible or impossible pre-explanation of any fact (or sum of facts). Hypotheses, confirmed by practical knowledge, form the basis of the theory.
5. Theory is the highest form of organization of rational knowledge. The theory reflects a system of holistic ideas about the existence and connections of a particular object or phenomenon.

Forms of rational knowledge

In rational knowledge, one can distinguish special methods or methods, which are quite specific. A method as a whole is a system of rules, requirements and instructions that make it possible to study, in a certain way, an object.

The sum of the methods used can be defined as a methodology.

It should be understood that rational methods can include both theoretical and empirical ones.

Empirical methods include:

• sensation;
• perception;
• performance;
• observation (purposeful action without the intervention of the observer);
• experiment (phenomena are studied under specially created conditions);
• measurement;
• comparison.

The use of empirical methods in rational knowledge is impossible, since even observation requires primary theoretical foundations, at least for choosing an object.

Theoretical methods include:

• analysis;
• synthesis;
• classification;
• abstraction;
• formalization (that is, displaying information in symbolic form);
• analogy;
• modeling;
• idealization;
• deduction;
• induction.

The use of only theoretical methods in rational knowledge does not provide an objective reflection of the phenomenon under study, but only builds some kind of abstract model.

Theoretical and empirical methods of rational knowledge are possible in unity and complementarity.

In a broader sense, methods as approaches are understood as a general direction and method of solving certain specific problems (for example, structural-functional method, phenomenological, cultural-historical, formalistic, pragmasemantic, hermeneutic, etc.).

Philosophical methods of cognition are extremely general approaches, these include metaphysical and dialectical. Each science or field of knowledge applies its own methods and forms of rational knowledge (or conditionally rational). In the categorical-conceptual apparatus of different fields of knowledge, certain methods of cognition (cognition) may bear private names, which does not negate the effectiveness of this classification for them.

Now we should consider the relationship between the following frequently encountered concepts: system and structure. Structure is understood as a set of elements or parts that make up the whole (system), as well as the way in which this integrity is interconnected. The system can perform various operations (functions) and, depending on this, has a different structure. So, when we considered the situation described by classical epistemology, we were dealing with the following structure of the cognitive process: subject - means of cognition - object. There is also a goal-setting, activity structure: goal - means - result. By comparing these structures, one can obtain the subjective and object components of cognitive activity.

Let us consider the structure of the cognitive process depending on the two main levels of cognition traditionally identified in classical epistemology - sensory and rational.

Human sensory cognition is based on the work of the senses (vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste), primarily on vision and hearing. Rational knowledge is based on the development by human thinking of abstract concepts and theories and is essentially logical. However, any real process of cognition always represents a unity of sensual and rational forms - every sensual form is colored by a rational element, and vice versa, any abstract theoretical concept ultimately has a basis in the practical activity of man and is in one way or another connected with the data of the senses. Both sensory and rational knowledge occur in certain forms.

Forms of sensory knowledge:

1. Feeling– this is a reflection of individual aspects and properties of an object. Sensation is the starting point of the cognitive process and represents a person’s direct connection with the outside world.

2. Perception– a higher form of cognition, which is a reflection of the subject as a whole.

3. Performance– the highest form, which is characterized by the ability to reproduce previously perceived objects. The peculiarity of representation is that it contains an element of generalization and thereby approaches the rational form.

Rational cognition is called logical or abstract thinking. This is the highest form of knowledge, thanks to which the subject penetrates into the essence of objects and phenomena.

Forms of rational knowledge:

Concept – there is a certain thought in which the general and essential properties of an object are recorded. For example: various concepts, categories of science, everyday consciousness (“electric current” as the directed movement of electrons in a conductor, or “house” as a human dwelling).

Judgment is a specific thought in which something is denied or affirmed. For example, metal is electrically conductive.

Inference- is the conclusion of a new judgment from two or more judgments. There are two types of inference: induction And deduction .

Induction – inference based on the movement of thought from specific to general statements. For example, iron conducts electricity, copper conducts electricity. Conclusion: metals are electrically conductive.

Deduction- inference based on the movement of thought from general to specific statements. For example, metals are electrically conductive, copper is a metal, therefore copper conducts electricity.

So, logical knowledge is an indirect, abstract reflection of reality, which cannot be reduced to the sensory.

In the classical theory of knowledge there was a dilemma between empiricism and rationalism, which was based on considering one of the forms of knowledge as the main, determining one. Thus, empiricism (empirical means experimental) was based on the position that sensory knowledge is the main, determining factor in the scientific exploration of the world. The representative of empiricism, the English philosopher J. Locke argued that there is nothing in the intellect that was not previously in the feelings. Intellect here is interpreted as a special integrative feeling that does not introduce anything qualitatively new, but only synthesizes ordinary sensory impressions. There is no doubt that rational knowledge, the intellect, is based on sensory knowledge, but goes far beyond its limits. Thus, from the correct sensationalist thesis that sensations are the primary source of our knowledge, empiricism draws the incorrect conclusion that the entire content of our knowledge is determined by feelings.

§2. Sensory and rational cognition

Cognitive images, by origin and essence, are divided into sensual and rational, which, in turn, form sensual and rational cognition.

1. Sensory cognition

The question of the relationship between sensory and rational knowledge has long been considered by philosophers, and in modern times it has become the main one (the so-called problem of sensationalism and rationalism). Sensualists considered sensory knowledge to be the source of knowledge, and rationalists thought that only thinking can provide truth.

Sensory cognition is created by sensory images obtained through the direct influence of objects and phenomena of reality on the senses (vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste).

Basic forms of sensory cognition:♦ sensation; ♦ perception; ♦ presentation.

Sensation is a direct reflection of any individual property of an object (color, sound, smell) using one of the senses. Sensations depend both on the properties of the object and on the structure of the organ that perceives. Animals without cones in their eyes do not see color. But these organs of perception are built in such a way as to provide reliable information, otherwise the life of the owner of the organs will become impossible.

Perception is the highest form of sensory cognition - a reflection of the whole, a system of properties using several senses. It, like sensation, is a function of two arguments. On the one hand, the reflection of the whole depends on the properties of the object, and, on the other, on the structure of the organs of perception (because it consists of sensations), previous experience and the entire mental structure of the object. Each person perceives the environment through the structure of his own personality, in his own way. Such methods of personality psychodiagnostics as the Rorschach method, etc., are based on this phenomenon.

The Rorschach method involves the patient being diagnosed looking at various colored blots and telling what exactly he sees in them. Depending on what a person sees, its most important psychological characteristics are determined, in particular the mobility of the central nervous system, extroversion or introversion, the degree of aggressiveness and other properties, as well as attitudes, motives of the personality and its holistic structure.

In other projective tests, the subject must complete unfinished sentences, determine what will happen to the people depicted in the picture, etc. In all these cases, the experimental object transforms the information according to its individuality, and the doctor has the opportunity to identify the patient’s personality structure, since there is a reliably established dependence of perception on this structure.

A specific form of sensory cognition is representation - the reproduction in the psyche of a sensory image of an object based on past sensations and perceptions.

If sensations and perceptions arise through direct interaction of human senses with existing objects and phenomena of reality, then ideas arise when these objects do not exist. The physiological basis of ideas is made up of traces of excitations stored in the cerebral cortex from past irritations of the sense organs. Thanks to this, we can recreate a sensory image of an object when it is no longer in our direct experience. We, for example, can clearly reproduce in our memory our loved ones and home environment, while being far from home.

Representation is a transitional form from sensory knowledge to logical knowledge. It belongs to the forms of sensory knowledge, since knowledge of an object in the form of representation is sensory-concrete in nature. The essential properties of the object are not yet clearly identified here, but are distinguished from the non-essential ones. And representation, unlike perception, rises above the immediate givenness of individual objects and connects them with understanding.

The idea contains a significant element of generalization, because it is impossible to imagine an object in the fullness of its characteristics by which we perceived it before. Some of them are sure to be forgotten. Only those properties of an object are stored in memory that were of greatest importance to us at the moment of its perception. Therefore, representation is, so to speak, a generalized reflection of the object. We can have an idea not of any single tree, but of a tree in general, as a plant that has roots, a trunk, branches, and leaves. However, this general idea cannot be identified with the concept, because the latter reflects not only general and partial properties, all these characteristics are in an internal necessary connection with each other. But this is not in the show.

Perception refers only to the present, to what exists at this moment, and phenomenon refers only to the present, the past, and the future. Representations exist in two forms: in the form of images of memory and images of imagination.

Memory images are images of an object that are stored in the psyche and are updated when mentioned. Images of the imagination do not have a prototype in reality; they are constructed in the psyche and are the basis of fantasy.

Naturally, ideas, like perception, depend on the structure of the personality. Thus, the representation of memory, the memories of different people about the same events differ in many ways.

Lawyers who interview witnesses are well aware of this. A striking example of this phenomenon is interesting films. In particular, “Rashomon”, in which several people talk at trial about the same event (a duel between a robber and a samurai) so that all the main points appear differently. Also, “A Married Life” is a film based on the novel by the French writer E. Bazin. In this film, a divorced couple recalls the story of their acquaintance, love, life together and divorce. It is convincingly shown that, given the general scheme of events, the idea of ​​details, nuances and the very essence of their relationships are significantly different.

Characteristic features of sensory cognition:

♦ immediacy;♦ singularity; ♦ number of floors.

♦ specificity; ♦ visibility;

Directness means that there are no indirect links between the object and the sensory image (except for the neurophysiological process, which cannot be eliminated).

Unity lies in the fact that sensation, perception and idea always have a relation to a specific object. The specificity lies in the fact that individual objects are reflected taking into account their specificity in certain conditions. The visibility of sensory images expresses the comparative ease of their mental perception and representation. The number of floors is due to the fact that sensation and perception reflect the external side of phenomena, while their essence is hidden and not amenable to sensory knowledge.

2. Rational knowledge

Rational cognition is active, mediated and generalized cognition using signs of natural or artificial language in the forms of judgments, inferences, and concepts.

Judgment is a form of reflection in the human head of the presence or absence of a characteristic in an object. Judgment is made in the form of affirmation or negation. Therefore, a judgment can also be defined this way: a judgment is a thought that affirms or denies something about something. The external, linguistic form of expressing a judgment is a grammatical sentence. For example, “The leaves on the tree are green,” “The universe has no boundaries either in time or in space,” etc.

In some judgments, reliable knowledge about the characteristics of an object has already been achieved, for example: “A person can work successfully in space flight conditions.” Probable propositions only assume the presence or absence of some attribute of an object: “It is possible that organic life exists on Mars.” In judgments - questions, only a request is made about the existence of some characteristic of an object: “is there a virus that spreads cancer?”

As we see, the epistemological, cognitive significance of judgment lies precisely in the fact that, with the help of this form of thinking, it is possible to carry out a logical reflection of the properties of objects and phenomena of reality. When studying objects and phenomena, we make many judgments about them, each of which is knowledge about some property or relationship of the object.

We make many judgments on the basis of sensory impressions of objects and phenomena that we encounter in direct experience. However, judgments are made not only on the basis of direct evidence from our senses. All judgments of science, in the form of which definitions are given to objects and phenomena of reality, the laws of nature and society are formulated, various general provisions and principles are expressed, are inferential judgments, i.e. are the results of the conclusions.

Inference is the process of deriving a new judgment from existing ones. What is deduced through the process of inference is called a conclusion. Those judgments from which the conclusion is drawn are called references, or reasons. An inference is a natural connection between judgments, that is, propositions. It exists only when the links are connected by some link, the so-called average term. If we have, for example, two propositions “All infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms” and “Influenza is an infectious disease,” then from these references we can conclude: “Influenza is caused by some microorganisms.” In this conclusion, the link is linked by a common term for them: “infectious diseases”, which is a necessary logical basis for the conclusion. On the contrary, if we have such propositions as “The leaves on the tree are green” and “A whale is a mammal,” then it is impossible to draw a conclusion from them, because there is no necessary logical connection, there is no middle term.

Using various forms of inference, techniques and methods of scientific knowledge, a person discovers general, necessary, essential properties and relationships of objects and phenomena of reality and creates scientific concepts about them. A concept is the final result, the result of scientific knowledge of the world. The form of concepts reflects the essence of objects and phenomena.

A concept is a reflection in the psyche of objects and phenomena of reality with their general and essential characteristics. A concept as a form of thought is expressed in words and is characterized by such features. Firstly, by reflecting the subject according to its general characteristics. This means that a concept is a form of reflection not only of individual objects or phenomena, but also of an indefinite number of homogeneous objects and phenomena and their natural relationships. Secondly, a concept is knowledge about the essential properties and relationships of things. This circumstance is important to keep in mind, because different objects and phenomena may have quite a lot of common properties, but knowledge of them does not yet mean knowledge of the essence. For example, both humans and chickens have two legs. However, the general attribute “two-legged creature” will not express either the essence of a person or the essence of a chicken as a bird. Thirdly, the concept reflects the unity of general and essential features, each of which is necessary, and together they are sufficient to define the subject.

The concept already appears at the empirical level, in everyday life, when, for example, children “define” things functionally: “What is fruit?” - “they are eaten”; "What is a dog?" - “She bites.” That is, at this level, concepts reflect external and sometimes imaginary signs of things (“My mother is the best!”).

The concept as a form of rational knowledge is the result of judgments and the condition for their occurrence; it, as a form of thinking, is a concentrated expression of a long historical experience of knowledge and hidden from the senses, the deep, main properties and phenomena of reality. Science enhances the experience of fast-paced life thanks to our ability to form and apply concepts in cognition and activity.

Characteristic features of rational knowledge:

♦ mediation;♦ generality;

♦ abstractness; ♦ lack of visibility;

♦ reality.

Rational cognition and thought reflect reality not directly, directly, but indirectly, through an intermediate link, sensory cognition, which always mediates the connection between the object and rational knowledge. Therefore, the mediation of rational cognition is its first characteristic feature, as opposed to the immediacy of sensory cognition.

Generalization is the second feature of rational knowledge, which lies in the fact that the signs of the language that is used in it designate (except for proper names) certain sets of phenomena that have common characteristics, and not one specific phenomenon.

The third feature of rational knowledge is abstractness. It is formed from the selection and isolation of certain properties and relationships from their specific carriers, designation of the selected sign (for example, a word in a natural language) and then operating with these signs that replace phenomena.

Since rational cognition is abstract and exists in a sign form, sensory representation becomes impossible, that is, we are talking about a lack of visibility as the fourth feature of rational cognition. And finally, the fifth feature is the ability of a system of abstractions, indirectly related to reality, to penetrate into the essence and reveal the main thing.

3. The unity of the sensual and rational in knowledge

After everything that has been said about sensory and logical cognition, we are faced with the question of why rational cognition reflects reality deeper, more fully than sensory cognition. After all, abstract thinking is based on sensory knowledge. Where does this ability to penetrate into the essence of things come from?

This question has been the subject of debate between various philosophical schools throughout the history of philosophy. Some philosophers argued that logical thinking does not provide anything new compared to sensory knowledge. There is nothing in thinking, as they said, that was not previously in feelings. These philosophers believed that thinking only unites and summarizes everything that is known from sensory perceptions. Moreover, it can lead to insoluble paradoxes. For example, the paradox of a barber who can shave only those villagers who cannot shave themselves (what should he do with himself?).

Other philosophers, on the contrary, argued that sensory knowledge is dark, false knowledge, and that only reasonable, rational knowledge is true.

Thus, in the doctrine of knowledge, there have long been two opposing directions: extreme sensationalism and extreme rationalism. Both of them are characterized by a one-sided approach: the first overly exalted sensory knowledge and humiliated the role of thinking, and the second exaggerated the role of thinking and belittled the importance of sensory knowledge.

Representatives of sensationalism believed that all our knowledge, in the end, has a sensory origin. However, this direction limited the scope of human knowledge to what is given directly in sensory experience, limited the role of thinking only to the function of processing sensory data and denied the possibility of thinking going beyond the sensory content of knowledge and penetrating into the essence.

Logical thinking not only summarizes the sensory impressions that are supplied by the senses, but also critically processes, analyzes them, compares them with the already reliably known results of science and practice, and ensures the connection of new sensory impressions with all previous experience of scientific knowledge and transformation of the world. They say that Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation by noting the fact that an apple falls from the branch of an apple tree. However, there is a huge distance between the well-known fact of falling bodies and the law of universal gravitation.

Science discovers laws of nature and society that are not directly perceived by the senses, for example, the physical laws of the atomic nucleus or the laws of genetics. Moreover, the provisions of science often contradict direct human perception. For example, the Earth rotates around the Sun and its axis, but it seems to us that the Earth is motionless, and the Sun moves around it. All this clearly demonstrates how much new logical thinking provides for understanding the world and how deeply the supporters of extreme sensationalism were mistaken.

Regarding extreme rationalism, it also does not stand up to criticism. Medieval scholastic rationalism, reflected in the religious-idealistic philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, completely denied any empirical observation of natural phenomena and was the desire to “rationally substantiate the existence of God.” Galileo gives an example when a scholastic scientist came to an anatomist and asked to show where the center was located, to which all the nerves converge. When the anatomist showed him that they converge to the human brain, the monk replied: “Thank you, this is so convincing that I would have believed you if Aristotle had not written that they converge to the heart.” F. Bacon compared the scholastics with spiders: “The scholastics, like spiders, weave their cunning verbal snares, not caring at all whether their cunning wisdom corresponds to reality or not.” It is necessary, however, to emphasize that the supporters of rationalism at one time included such thinkers as Descartes and Leibniz, who developed the logical-mathematical method of cognition and put forward many valuable ideas.

In fact, the sensory and rational moments are two sides of a single cognitive process. Logical thinking, thanks to work and language, historically arises from concrete-figurative, sensory knowledge. Even now it cannot be realized without the spoken or written word or some other symbol.

So, sensory perception determines logical thinking as follows:

♦ supplies primary information about external objects;

♦ words and symbols, as an external material form of expression of thought, directly exist and function on the basis of feelings.

In turn, cognition through the senses never exists in a pure form, because a person is always aware of his sensory impressions and expresses them through the mediation of internal and external speech in the form of judgments. So, the entire process of human reproduction of the external world in ideal images is a constant interconnection of the sensory and rational aspects of cognition.

All of the above is directly related to medicine, medical knowledge, in particular before diagnosis.

When making a diagnosis, at the first stage of a medical examination, sensory cognition predominates, but it is always accompanied by thinking. After this, during the determination of the nosological unit in differential diagnosis, priority moves to logical thinking, which operates not only with words, but also with sensory images and ideas.

4. Cognition and creativity

In the process of cognition, along with conscious sensuality and rationality, unconscious and uncontrollable mechanisms are involved, which are especially developed in talented and brilliant people, and are in no way explained by logical thinking. They define creativity, creative, non-algorithmic activity. The most important features of creativity are the harmony of the sensual and the rational (the harmony of the activity of the hemispheres of the human cerebral cortex), which turns out to be a developed imagination, fantasy and intuition.

In a sane mind there is a leak of creative work, true... I try to subordinate things to myself, and not to obey them.

Horace

All the joys of life are in creativity... To create means to kill death.

G. Rolland

There is hardly any higher of pleasures than the pleasure of creating.

M. Gogol

And the silver thread of fantasy always winds around the chain of rules.

G. Schumann

The human mind has three keys that open everything: knowledge, thought, imagination - everything is in it.

V. Hugo

In the work of thought there is joy, strength, breathtaking, harmony.

V. Vernadsky

Happiness is an easy product of free labor, free creativity.

I. Bardin

He who has imagination but no knowledge has wings but no legs.

J. Joubert

One should always prefer facts observed above the wings to sandals... imagine, no matter how attractive flight may seem.

J. Fabre

The most important property of the Universe is that it is understandable.

A. Einstein

Imagination is the main element in the structure of spiritual creativity. Its specific feature is a person’s special relationship to the world, which is expressed in the relative independence, freedom of the subject from direct perception of reality. Imagination is usually understood as a mental activity consisting in the creation of ideas and mental situations that have never been directly perceived by a person. The concept of imagination is close in meaning to the concept of fantasy.

Fantasy is a necessary component of creative activity and consists of creating an image or mental model that does not yet have its specific analogue (prototype) in the objective world. Without the ability to create images of imagination and fantasy, human creative thinking would be generally impossible. “Everything lofty and beautiful in our life, science and art,” wrote M. I. Pirogov, “was created by the mind with the help of fantasy, and many things were created by fantasy with the help of reason. We can safely say that neither Copernicus nor Newton without the help of fantasy would not have acquired the significance in science that they have."

Already in memory representations (reproductive representation) there is always an element of fantasy, because any act of reflection is associated with a more or less significant mental transformation of the object. At the same time, memory images and imagination images (productive ideas) differ significantly from each other.

To understand the specifics of imagination, it is necessary to take into account that, firstly, the transformation of the content of knowledge in the imagination always occurs in a visual form (the creation of visual or fantastic images in art, visual models in science, etc.). Secondly, the leading role in the work of imagine is played by thinking associated with goal setting (certain images are created in the name of certain goals - aesthetic, scientific, practical activity, etc.). Thirdly, ideas are images, phenomena that have not previously been observed. However, they are connected with reality and reflect it. Thus, the fantastic image of a centaur combines features inherent in a person and a horse, in the image of a mermaid - features of a woman and a fish, etc.

Images of the imagination are formed not only by combining elements of memory images, but also by rethinking these elements, filling them with new content, so that they do not copy existing objects, but are ideal prototypes of what is possible. As a result, the images of the imagination, firstly, turn out to be complex, combined and, secondly, contain both sensory-visual and rational-logical components.

The transformation of empirical knowledge, resulting in additional information, is the main element of creative imagination.

The French physicist Louis de Broglie argued that creative imagination, the mental manipulation of visual images, underlie all true achievements of science. That is why the human mind is able, in the end, to prevail over all the machines that count and classify better than it, but cannot imagine or foresee.

A dream is a special form of imagination, mental activity aimed at creating images of the desired future. The creative nature of a dream is determined by its social orientation and the breadth of imagination. The specificity of a dream is that it cannot be directly translated into certain products. However, its idea can subsequently form the basis of technical, scientific and social transformations. A fruitful dream stimulates the activity of the individual, creates creative tone, and determines life prospects. And vice versa, illusory dreams distract a person from reality, turn out to be fruitless, and fetter social activity.

So, the main operations of the imagination process are mental combination (combination in thoughts) with relatively simple representations of sensory experience, construction from them or on their basis of complex new images and, as a result, fantasizing as an assumption of the possibility of the existence of such things, the integral real existence of which has never been observed.

But what is the mechanism for putting forward new ideas and new ideas in the process of imagination? It is often believed that this is intuition.

What is intuition? The concept of intuition comes from a Latin word that means “contemplation”, “discretion”, “vision”, “watchful looking”. Plato believed that intuition is an inner vision with the help of which a person is able to contemplate the eternal world of ideas located in her own soul. The difficulty of clarifying the essence and mechanism of intuition is associated with its subconscious nature and the complexity of studying all mental phenomena. Intuition can be defined by a subconscious cognitive process, which leads to the creation of fundamentally new images and concepts, the content of which is not deduced by logical operation of existing concepts.

In modern creativity psychology, there are several stages in the process of intuition:

♦ accumulation of images and abstractions in memory;

♦ unconscious combination and processing of accumulated images and abstractions in order to solve assigned problems;

♦ clearer understanding of the task and its formulation;

♦ suddenly finding a solution (illumination - insight - "eureka!" - often during rest, sleep).

Creative intuition comes into its own when the available information does not make it possible to solve the problem using ordinary logical reasoning. Intuitive knowledge appears to appear spasmodically, without consistent logical justification, and the combination of sensory images is important (in Einstein’s words, “combinatorial play” with figurative elements of thinking). The famous chemist Kekule could not find the structural formula of benzene for a long time and finally found it as a result of an association, which he recalls as follows: “I saw a cage with monkeys who were catching each other, now interlocking, now uncoupling, and one day they grabbed each other so that they formed ring... Thus, the five monkeys jumped up and formed a circle, and a thought immediately flashed through my head: here is an image of benzene.”

From the above example, we see that the success of an intuitive solution depends on how much the researcher managed to free himself from the template, become convinced of the unsuitability of previously known paths and maintain not only concentration, but also deep admiration for the task.

Attempts to solve a problem before “insight” are unsuccessful, but they are not meaningless. At this time, a special state of mind is formed - a search dominant - a state of deep concentration on solving a problem. This leads to a solution to the problem: thinking is a little detached (“you can’t see faces face to face”) and the brain, which has rested, is visited by an idea, as they say, “with a clear mind.”

Intuition arises only on prepared soil as a result of labor, experience and talent, as a result of the activity of sensory and rational knowledge.

Medical intuition is associated with immediate, subconscious confidence in the diagnosis. Such intuition is the result of mandatory long-term observations and the process of comparison and analysis of features brought to automation.

The obligatory goal of sensory and rational knowledge, scientific creativity is the knowledge of truth.

Cognition breaks up, as it were, into two halves, or rather parts: sensory and rational. The main forms of sensory cognition: sensation, perception, representation.

Sensation is a reflection of individual properties of an object or phenomenon. In the case of a table, for example, its shape, color, material (wooden, plastic). Based on the number of sense organs, there are five main types (“modalities”) of sensations: visual, sound, tactile, gustatory and olfactory. The most important for a person is the visual modality: more than 80% of sensory information comes through it.

Perception gives a holistic image of an object, reflecting the totality of its properties; in our example - a sensually concrete image of a table. The source material of perception, therefore, is sensations. In perception they are not simply summed up, but organically synthesized. That is, we do not perceive individual “pictures”-sensations in one or another (usually kaleidoscopic) sequence, but the object as something whole and stable. Perception in this sense is invariant with respect to the sensations included in it.

Representation expresses the image of an object imprinted in memory. It is a reproduction of images of objects that influenced our senses in the past. The idea is not as clear as the perception. Something about him is missing. But this is good: by omitting some features or characteristics and retaining others, representation makes it possible to abstract, generalize, and highlight what is repeated in phenomena, which is very important at the second, rational, stage of cognition. Sensory knowledge is the direct unity of subject and object; they are given here as if together, inseparably. Direct does not mean clear, obvious and always correct. Sensations, perceptions, and ideas often distort reality and reproduce it inaccurately and one-sidedly. For example, a pencil dipped into water is perceived as broken.

Deepening cognition, isolating the objective from the subject-object unity that is given at the sensory stage of cognition leads us to rational cognition (sometimes it is also called abstract or logical thinking). This is already an indirect reflection of reality. There are also three main forms: concept, judgment and inference.

A concept is a thought that reflects the general and essential properties of objects, phenomena and processes of reality. When forming a concept for ourselves about an object, we abstract from all its living details, individual features, from how exactly it differs from other objects, and leave only its general, essential features. Tables, in particular, differ from each other in height, color, material, etc. But, forming the concept of “table”, we do not seem to see this and focus on other, more significant features: the ability to sit at the table, legs, smooth surface...

Judgments and inferences are forms of cognition in which concepts move, in which and with which we think, establishing certain relationships between concepts and, accordingly, the objects behind them. A judgment is a thought that affirms or denies something about an object or phenomenon: “the process has begun,” “in politics you cannot trust words.” Judgments are fixed in language with the help of a sentence. The proposal in relation to the judgment is its unique material shell, and the judgment constitutes the ideal, semantic side of the proposal. In a sentence there is a subject and a predicate, in a judgment there is a subject and a predicate.

The mental connection of several judgments and the derivation of a new judgment from them is called inference. For example: "People are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal." Judgments that form the basis of a conclusion or, in other words, judgments from which a new judgment is derived are called premises, and the deduced judgment is called a conclusion.

There are different types of inferences: inductive, deductive and analogical. In inductive reasoning, thought moves from the individual (facts) to the general. For example: "In acute triangles, the sum of interior angles is equal to two right angles. In right triangles, the sum of interior angles is equal to two right angles. In obtuse triangles, the sum of interior angles is equal to two right angles. Therefore, in all triangles, the sum of interior angles is equal to two right angles." Induction can be complete or incomplete. Complete - when the premises exhaust, as in the example given, the entire class of objects (triangles) to be generalized. Incomplete - when there is no such completeness (“the whole class”), when the number of inductively generalized cases or acts is unknown or inexhaustibly large. An example of incomplete induction is regular public opinion polls on a particular issue, who will become president, for example. Only a few are surveyed in a sample, but a generalization is made to the entire population. Inductive conclusions or conclusions are, as a rule, probabilistic in nature, although they also cannot be denied practical reliability. To refute an inductive generalization, one “insidious” case is often enough. Thus, before the discovery of Australia, it was generally accepted that all swans are white, and all mammals are viviparous. Australia "disappointed": it turned out that swans can be black, and mammals - the platypus and echidna - lay eggs.

In deductive reasoning, thought moves from the general to the specific. For example: “Everything that improves health is useful. Sport improves health. Therefore, sport is useful.”

Analogy is an inference in which, based on the similarity of objects in one respect, a conclusion is made about their similarity in another (other) respect. Thus, based on the similarity of sound and light (straightness of propagation, reflection, refraction, interference), a conclusion was made (in the form of a scientific discovery) about a light wave.

What is more important in knowledge - the sensory or rational principle? There are two extremes in answering this question: empiricism and rationalism. Empiricism is the view that the sole source of all our knowledge is sensory experience, that which we gain through sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. There is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the senses. Rationalism, on the contrary, is a position according to which knowledge (genuine, true, reliable) can be obtained with the help of the mind alone, without any reliance on the senses. In this case, the laws of logic and science, methods and procedures developed by reason itself are absolutized. For rationalists, the example of genuine knowledge is mathematics - a scientific discipline developed exclusively through the internal reserves of the mind, its form-creation, its constructivism.

The question still needs to be posed differently: not the opposition of sensory and rational knowledge, but their internal unity. One of the specific forms of this unity is imagination. It subsumes the sensory diversity that we discover in our knowledge of the world under abstract general concepts. Try, for example, without imagination, to subsume Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov under the concept of “person”. And not only because these are our people, but also in principle, in essence. For abstract thinking, images of the imagination serve as a sensory support, a kind of means of exposure in the sense of discovery, grounding, “fleshening.” Of course, imagination performs not only this function - a bridge, a connection. Imagination in a broad sense is the ability to create new images (sensual or mental) based on the transformation of impressions received from reality. With the help of imagination, hypotheses are created, model ideas are formed, new experimental ideas are put forward, etc.

A peculiar form of pairing the sensual and rational is also intuition - the ability to directly or directly (in the form of some kind of illumination, insight) discernment of the truth. In intuition, only the result (conclusion, truth) is clearly and clearly realized; the specific processes leading to it remain, as it were, behind the scenes, in the area and depths of the unconscious.

In general, a holistic person always perceives, a person in the fullness of all his life manifestations and powers.