Cognition as Orientation in the Environment (translated by Magdalena Kopczyńska)

Abstract

There is one major reason that the conception of nervous reflection cannot be directly associated with “cognition” even though it undoubtedly should be a vi- tal component of the definition of this term. Namely, reflection, understood as the creation of equivalents of external stimuli, is a process that happens not only in the brains of living creatures, but also in inanimate matter. A thermometer “reflects” changes in temperature, but we would not say that it “knows” them— it is the man who knows the temperature when using a thermometer. Reflection means cognition only when it determines offensive or defensive reactions of an organism: when it constitutes an element of the mechanism of adaptation to the environment, it enables the individual to be guided by the reflected external phenomena. [...]