Nowadays it is known that it was the three forms of sensory cognition that were the first step in the path of cognition. It is the simplest and most accessible, considering the basis of human contact with the surrounding world.
Specificity and forms of sensory cognition
Sensual cognition involves knowing the world with the help of the senses: hearing, smelling, touch, sight, taste. This knowledge is the primary source of any knowledge. Do not forget that there is always a difference between the prototype and the sensual image, which can not be ignored.
The object of knowledge is always richer than the concept reflecting it, since no matter how broad it is, it is not able to embrace all sides. Three forms of sensory cognition are known: sensation, perception , representation.
Basic forms of sensory cognition: sensations
Sensation is the first form. As a rule, it reflects only one property that can be determined by the senses (light, color, smell, etc.). Sensation allows you to get only partial, but not complete knowledge (for example, the color of an apple can not be judged on its smell, taste, temperature, etc.).However, through the sensation, a connection is established between the cognizing subject and the cognizable object. Due to the active activity of consciousness, any sensation entering the brain is transformed into an image of perception.
Perception is a form of sensory cognition
Perception is a complete concrete-sensual image of an object or phenomenon. In the modern world, not only perception through the senses, but also perception with the help of instruments (through a microscope, a telescope, etc.) is possible. Thanks to the achievements of science and technology, perception as a concept has become wider.
Perception has an active character and expresses a steady interest in the objects of reality, which is expressed in the desire to comprehend them. The activity of the subject in this case is manifested in the organization of the conditions in which the object can be studied as completely as possible. It is the perception that lies at the basis of the accumulation of material, thanks to which in the future it becomes possible to form a concept or a theory of the household level.
Form of sensory cognition of the world: representation
It is believed that it is from the sensual images that a person accumulates that his memory consists. It allows you to save and reproduce a chain of images even without an illustrative example. So we got to the concept of representation.
Representation is the third form of sensory cognition and is manifested in that it reproduces the image of an object on the basis of experience of interaction with it. It is important that this happens in the absence of the subject itself. Representation is a holistic image of reality that a person can always reproduce with the help of memory. That is, knowing how an apple looks, a person can easily remember
It should be borne in mind that the memory of a person is very selective, therefore from it those facets and properties disappear, on which the person has not sharpened his attention , or which he considered unimportant. Memory is subjective, and one person will describe the apple as red and sweet, and the other as a ripe and large.
Even at this stage it is easy to follow the appearance of abstract elements. That is why, at this stage, sensory cognition is coming to an end and its more complex stage - rational cognition - appears. However, do not belittle the importance of the first, sensory steps - they are the basis of any knowledge, with them begins knowledge in general.