COGNITION
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 471 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
The acquisition of an ordered and operative understanding of ourselves and our environment.
H. MATURANA thus states the autopoietic view on cognition:“… reality and its cognition had to (i.e. have to) be accepted as a mode of operation of the nervous system as a closed neuronal network” (1979, p.25).
He also writes: “Living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition” (1980, p.13).
As to “ reality”, this view may seem somewhat extreme. We should perhaps speak here of “perceived reality”.
As to cognition, we seemingly cannot do without some explanation about the autogenesis of such “closed neural networks”.
Also von FOERSTER presented “… evidence that cognition is a continuously recursive computation of descriptions of reality” (K. WILSON, 1979, p.32).
This amounts to an analogy of the brain as a biological computer. This analogy however should be taken with much care, because the brain, in any case, is obviously not a simple sequential computer and appearently constructs, in some not yet very well understood way, its own recursive algorithms.