When a person wants to know the world, then at first his ideas are made up of the first contacts with him. This sensory perception of reality is extremely important. However, it only gives signals about the facts that we see, feel, hear. But these are necessary sources of knowledge, and not it itself. But what if we want to understand what we are facing? Then we need other types of perception that are more advanced than sensory reflection. Such a higher type or form of rational cognition is the form of thinking.
This process of comprehending the connection between facts is active - because we ourselves strive to understand what is happening. It is also characterized by mediation. This process is characterized by the search for essence and the desire for generalization. In addition, it represents a kind of systematic approach to reflecting reality and solving its problems in particular clear forms. They represent three forms of rational knowledge.
The first of these is often called a concept. This is the main “brick” in the activity of thinking and rationalization of reality. In concepts, the essence of the described or observed object is expressed, as well as the necessary explanations are given. In order to better understand what exactly the form of rational cognition is a concept, we also recall that this type of thinking tells us, first of all, about the general and the regular. The formation of these ideas occurs in the process of practice, because only in this way it is possible to determine which aspects of reality are essential. When our knowledge changes, other concepts are very often developed, or the content of the former is specified.
The next form of rational knowledge is judgment. This is a kind of logical thinking, which involves a certain statement or denial regarding the object being studied. In judgment there is a connection between concepts. Thus, their contents are clarified, and more complete definitions are given. It can be said that judgments systematize thinking in terms of concepts.
Another form of rational cognition is inference. As a result of this logical process, several propositions “generate” a new statement or denial. It, in turn, represents the next stage of our knowledge of an object or phenomenon. Therefore, conclusions can be divided into several types. These are, first of all, inductive processes (when thinking moves from concretized judgments to more generalized ones). There are conclusions when logic works in the opposite direction. That is, there is a transition from general propositions to concrete ones (deductive processes). There are also conclusions "by analogy." In this case, based on the similarity and similarity of some elements or processes, conclusions are drawn about others.
So, we examined the main forms of rational cognition: concept, judgment, and, of course, inference. However, many philosophers believe that in epistemology as such, and in the functioning of consciousness, categories play a huge role. These are special, universal forms of rational comprehension of reality, which reflect the main connections, patterns and properties, material things, spiritual phenomena and various processes. The specificity of the categories is that if the concepts and the judgments consisting of them can be different for each science, then these universal terms have ideological and methodological significance for virtually any discipline.
