Dr. Siyaves Azeri
siyavesazeri@gmail.com
Conceptual Cognitive Organs: Toward an Historical Theory of Scientific
Knowledge
The relation between scientific concepts and reality cannot be
satisfactorily explained unless the empiricist supposition that dramatically
differentiates “appearance” and “reality” is dropped.
Concepts are components of sign systems, which function as tools of
cognitive activity. Conceptual cognition, qualitatively speaking, is not different
than perceptual cognition. Concepts are extensions of human sense organs.
They are particular higher cognitive organs the function of which is cognitive
activity.
Unlike empiricists that locate perception and cognition in human mind,
Vygotsky’s historical approach locates perception and cognition outside the
psyche or consciousness. It is the degree of abstraction and generalization that
differentiates between perceptual and cognitive activities and between different
forms of cognition.
Scientific concepts and conceptual systems (theories) appear to be a
particular form of higher mental activity. They are cognitive tools that provide
the ability of systematic cognition of phenomena, which are not available to the
grasp of ordinary sense organs. They are tools of scientific “groping” of
phenomena. Scientific concepts free perceptual and cognitive activity from
determination of “biological” sense organs by providing a high degree of
cognitive abstraction and generalization. Scientific cognition, like perceptual
activity, is actualized by consciousness but outside the consciousness.
Keywords: Concept, cognition, activity, consciousness, science, theory, reality,
empiricism