Understanding the Three Stages of Cognition

 

 

Understanding the Three Stages of Cognition (Critical Reflection on the Unified Philosophical Theory of Knowledge)

 

 

1.  Quoted Foundation

 

 

(Summarized from 통일사상, pp.634–635)

• The sensory stage serves as the gateway through which external information is received; it is the reviving stage of cognition.
• In the understanding (悟性) and rational (理性) stages, genuine thinking occurs.
• Thought in the understanding stage is influenced by incoming external information.
• In the rational stage, however, thought proceeds freely, independent of external stimuli.
• The cognitive structures formed in the understanding and rational stages resemble the archetypal logical structures of Original Nature.
• Especially in the rational stage, inference develops freely to generate novel concepts (新生體).

 

 

 

2.  Critical Interpretation

 

 

A.

The statement that "thinking in the understanding stage is influenced by information entering from the outside" actually describes cognition in the sensory stage,
where external information is received in the form of internal archetypal intuition.
This is not characteristic of understanding-stage cognition.

 

 

B.

The claim that "in the understanding stage, thought is defined by external sensory content, and cognition is completed through the combination of external content and internal archetypes" also pertains to the sensory stage of cognition.

Moreover,
completed cognition is generative—it produces, multiplies, and stands independently.
Therefore, the logical structure formed at this point is not a static (靜的) expectation of thought,
but rather a dynamic (動的) expectation of thought.

 

 

C.

The analogy that "in conversation, one’s thinking is influenced by what the other person says,
which reflects cognition in the understanding stage"
is in fact an example of sensory cognition,
since the thought is determined by external input.
It should not be attributed to the understanding stage.

 

 

 

 

3.  Conclusion

 

 

 

 

From the above analysis,

we have demonstrated that:

• Cognition determined by the combination of internal archetypes and external sensory content belongs to the sensory stage,
  not the understanding stage.
• The logical structure of this kind of cognition is a
  dynamic (動的) expectation of thought,
  not a static or self-identical one.