Forms of rational knowledge

The basic forms of rational cognition are what allows you to study the surrounding world by objective methods based on logic and thinking, and not on empty speculation. In the article we will consider three forms of rational knowledge - concepts, judgments and inferences, giving sufficient attention to each of the variants separately. Starting should be from the simplest, moving on to the most difficult.

Concept as a form of rational knowledge

First, you need to decide on the terms used. A proper name means a particular object: this chair, this wall. A common name denotes an object as a class: trees, notebooks, etc.

Concepts are the names of events and objects of reality: "door", "board", "cat". Any concept has two main characteristics - volume and content:

  1. The scope of the concept is all that set of objects that at present, before and after this point, refers to the concept. For example, the concept of "man" is both an ancient man, a person today, and a man of the future.
  2. The content of the concept - all the signs that serve to characterize this concept, make it possible to define it.

Thus, the concept is a thought that generalizes a set of attributes, a special interpretation, designed to explain to any person the essence of a whole class of things that lie behind one word. In the world of science, concepts are grinded until they find their most clear and understandable form. The essence of any of the phenomena of reality is explained on the basis of concepts.

Forms of rational knowledge: judgment

Another form of rational cognition is judgment. It is a more complex structure, namely, the connection of several concepts. As a rule, judgment is called upon to either affirm or deny a certain thesis. In the world of science, the main role is given to those judgments that are "Truth-bearers," that is, they claim something as truth . It is worth noting that not all of them will be true.

Examples of different judgments: "Earth is the third planet in the solar system", "There is not a single satellite on Earth". The first statement is true, but the second is not, while they both enter the class of judgments. In fact, any phrase can be attributed to judgments, even if it is just the expression "Give the book", which does not carry in itself either truth or lies.

True judgments necessarily contain parts:

  1. Subject of judgment (this or that, which is reported in the judgment). The scientific community accepts the designation S.
  2. Predicate (the information that the judgment carries in it). In the scientific community, the designation of the letter P.
  3. An important link "is" is a connecting link between the subject and the predicate.

The scheme of any truth judgments is considered to be the formula "S is P". Examples: "Hair is light", "Student is smart". Subjects: hair, student. Predicates: bright, intelligent. The word "is" must be implied by its meaning, since in Russian it is customary to omit it when constructing phrases, often replacing the word "this" with " for dashes.

Forms of rational knowledge: inference

This is the highest level of rational knowledge, which connects several judgments. As a rule, the conclusion follows from a group of judgments, which are called parcels, to another group - conclusions. Here the law operates: if the premises are true, then to some extent the conclusions will also be true.

It is worth noting that the forms of rational cognition are the content of the human mind - it is less flexible and theoretical category than reason, which is the highest degree of logic .