Since ancient times, primitive man considered experience as a resource and a very important tool to survive, since through it it was possible to face the problems of everyday life.
1. Introduction
But it was not until the time of ancient Greece (7th century BC) that experiences, concepts, ideas, thoughts, knowledge and the mind itself also took on great importance, since the first Greek philosophers (Parmenides, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle), realized that the human being was capable of constructing ideas, from concepts (example that Socrates took from the Geometrists or Pythagoreans) which were the product of representations of the sensible world (physical objects) through the sensory organs (mediators: sight, hearing, touch, etc.).
According to the above, it can be said that, in the acquisition of knowledge, a subject, object and a mediator (the sensory organs) are required.
But to talk about how the human being acquires knowledge, and how the subject and the mediator intervenes, it is necessary to ask the following questions:
Why know? How does the human being get to know? Why know? How does the human being come to know the physical world? When does the human being realize that he can acquire experience, and then knowledge that it is based on observation and experimentation of the facts and phenomena of nature, which can be left from generation to generation, and so on? increase knowledge in humanity from the sensible world and the intelligible world? What elements participate in human knowledge? How is it built, and what is the basis of the structure of the human mind? How does the human mind develop? When does man realize that he can use the human mind?
Silent knowledge is a general position of the assemblage point, which millennia before had been the normal position, of the human gender, but that for reasons impossible to determine, the assemblage point of man had moved away from that specific position to adopt a new, called the "Reason".
And this is how, from reasoning or reasoning, man created a current of philosophical thought called rationalism or rationalist philosophy, which considers reason as the base or source of knowledge.
Therefore, to answer the previous questions, it is necessary to rely on the different philosophical conceptions (philosophical thoughts) which through concepts, principles and theories can serve as a guide for the description and understanding of knowledge and knowledge problems. man himself.
Worldview of wisdom as Human Knowledge
A legend says: «That the gods met to hide the wisdom, since the human being was going to degenerate and it was not recommended that he should have it in his hands since he would only destroy himself faster and achieve very great damage. But it needed to be within reach of trained people to make good use of it. The God of the waters got up and said: "Let's hide the wisdom at the bottom of an ocean, in an underwater cavern and put a sea monster to protect it, there you will never find it." One of the Gods went ahead to the future -the legend says- and was surprised that the human being would make wars at the bottom of the oceans, and that if wisdom was there, in whose hands it was going to fall, it was not well good place. The god of the earth stood up - in the assembly and said:"Let us choose wisdom in the bowels of the earth, there it will never occur to him to search", they once again advance to the future and realize that the human being would make holes everywhere, out of greed, looking for minerals, precious stones, etc. And what kind of human being would find wisdom, it was not a good place either.
Then the god of the air spoke and said: "Let's hide the wisdom in the highest mountain, where human foot has never reached", they go ahead to the future and see that the human being out of pride would try to conquer the highest mountains, people like that either it was recommended that you find it.
They spoke of dozens of places, but no place was safe, finally one said: "Let us hide wisdom within the same human being, he will not look for it there, only the one who has a pure and noble heart will think of looking for it in that place". All the gods agreed, and since then the wisdom is there… »
If we reflect on this legend we will realize that wisdom (silent knowledge) or truth is not possessed by any school, it is within the same human being, the different groups that exist in the world only give you the techniques to find it, such schools must exist because human beings have different levels of spiritual learning.
I warn you, whoever you are, Oh! You who wish to probe the arcana of Nature, that if you do not find within yourself what you are looking for, you cannot find it outside either. If you ignore the excellence of your own home, how do you intend to find other excellence? In you is hidden the treasure of treasures. Oh! Man, know yourself and you will know the Universe and the Gods.
Today, we must reflect that the progress of humanity is due to the great men (Pythagoras, Archimedes, Socrates, Plato. Aristotle, Heraclitus, Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Descartes, Hippocrates, Galen, among others), who have recognized their own higher faculties of the human being, and have made adequate use of them, but also, there will be those who could say that the system of knowledge created by man called science and technology, has not been able to provide a solution to the great evils of humanity such as: hunger, economic, political and social inequalities, prostitution, drug addiction, wars, etc.
But I would like to tell you that society is not only made up of those wise men and aware of their nature, but that we are all part of it, so we all have the obligation and responsibility to act, and collaborate in the development of humanity, but It is necessary that each human being prepare himself, and know the characteristics of human nature, and only in this way can they sharpen and perhaps one day end forever the anguishes and hardships of the human race, but perhaps more than one of you will ask What to know the characteristics of human nature? Well, it is important to know and understand what powers man has, and how he can develop them to use them for the benefit of himself and humanity.
For which, we must analyze and understand that to understand the characteristics of human nature we must approach it from the following spheres:
The functions of the human machine.
The study of oneself must begin with the study of the four functions of the human being: Intellectual, emotional, instinctive or physiological and motor.
What is meant by "intellectual function" or "function of thought" is, I suppose, clear to you. All the mental processes are included in it: perception of impressions, formation of representations and concepts, reasoning, comparison, affirmation, negation, formation of words (language), imagination, and so on.
We must recognize that, in this sphere, the human being has dedicated more time and has been very useful for the scientific and technological development of humanity, since mental processes such as: knowledge, learning, memory, language, etc. They have been the fundamental aspects that have allowed man a great development in the construction of scientific concepts, theories and laws that allow him to describe, interpret and explain the natural, social and like phenomena of human nature.
How is it known? What elements are involved in knowing? Why is it important to know? Why know? Where and when can we apply the known? How do you learn? Why learn? Why is learning important?
The second function is feeling, or emotions: joy, sorrow, fear, surprise, etc. Even if you are sure you fully understand how and how emotions differ from ideas, I would advise you to review your ideas in this regard. In our habitual ways of seeing and speaking, we confuse thoughts and feelings. More to start studying yourself it is necessary to clearly establish your difference.
Furthermore, this sphere allows us to analyze and describe the mental processes that occur and take place within the human brain such as: feeling and emotion.
But what is a feeling and how is it produced?
How many types of feelings are there?
What is an emotion and how is it produced?
How many types of emotions are there?
The following two functions, instinctive (physiological) and motor, will retain us longer, since no ordinary psychology system correctly distinguishes or describes them.
The words "instinct," "instinct," are generally used in the wrong sense and often nonsense. In particular, instinct is assigned external manifestations that are actually of a motor nature, and sometimes emotional.
Instinctive (physiological) function comprises four classes of functions in humans.
- All the internal work of the organism, all the physiology so to speak; digestion and assimilation of food, respiration, blood circulation, all the work of the internal organs, the construction of new cells, the elimination of waste, the work of the endocrine glands (sympathetic and parasympathetic) and everything else. "Five senses (mediators)" as they are called: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch; and everyone else. As a sense of Weight, Temperature, Dryness or humidity, etc., that is, they are not in themselves neither pleasant nor unpleasant. All physical emotions; that is, all physical sensations that are pleasant or unpleasant, all kinds of pain or unpleasant sensations, for example, an unpleasant taste or an unpleasant odor,and all kinds of physical pleasure, like pleasant tastes, pleasant smells, etc. All reflexes, even the most complicated ones, such as laughter and yawning; all kinds of physical memory, such as the memory of taste, smell, pain, which are actually internal reflexes.
The motor function includes all external movements, such as walking, writing, speaking, eating, and the memories that remain of them. The motor function also includes movements that ordinary language describes as "instinctive", such as catching a falling object without thinking about it.
The difference between instinctive function and motor function is very clear and easy to understand; it is enough to remember that all instinctual functions without exception are innate and that it is not necessary to learn them to use them; while none of the movement functions is innate, and all must be learned; thus, the child learns to walk, learns to write, to draw, to dance, etc.
In addition to these normal motor functions, there are also strange movement functions that represent the useless work of the human machine, work not foreseen by nature, but which occupies a wide space in the life of man and consumes a large amount of his energy. They are: the formation of dreams, imagination, reverie, talking to oneself (internal dialogue), and in a general way all uncontrolled and uncontrollable manifestations.
We must well recognize that, it has always been said that the human being is a great mystery, since just as in nature changes occur at every moment, for being a dynamic system, where everything changes and transforms to give birth to other types of life and matter, as well as inside the human being, infinitesimal changes are happening every moment, without his realizing it, proof of the above can be said that the human being does not control the rhythm of respiration, blood flow, secretion of the endocrine glands, and other activities that are carried out without his consent. Therefore, it can be said that instincts are invisible forces (physiological processes) that are constantly working on the order and administration of the activities or processes of the human body.
What are instincts? How many types of instincts are there? How do instincts develop and strengthen? What kinds of instincts are there? How do instincts influence human nature? Therefore, the four intellectual, emotional, instinctive and motor functions must first of all be understood in all its manifestations; then it is necessary to observe them in itself. This self-observation, which must be carried out appropriately, with a previous understanding of the states of consciousness and of the different functions, constitutes the basis of the study of oneself, that is, "the principle of psychology".
It is very important to remember that even observing different functions it is necessary to observe at the same time its relation with the different states of consciousness.
Take the three states of dream consciousness, waking state, sparks of self-awareness, and the four functions of thought, feeling, instinct, and movement. These four functions can be manifested in the dream, but their manifestations are then unraveled and without foundation. They cannot be used in any way and they run automatically. In the waking state of consciousness, or relative consciousness, they can to some extent serve to guide us. Its results can be compared, verified, and while they can create many illusions, we only have them in our ordinary state and we must use them as much as possible. If we knew the amount of false observations, false theories, false deductions and conclusions made in this state,We would completely stop believing in ourselves. But men do not see how misleading their observations and their theories can be and they continue to believe in them. And that is what prevents human beings from observing the rare moments when their functions are manifested under the effect of the sparks of the third state of consciousness, that is, self-consciousness.
All of this means that each of the four functions can manifest in each of the three states of consciousness. But the results differ entirely. When we learn to observe these results and their difference, we understand the correct relationship between the functions and states of consciousness of man.
But before considering the differences that a function presents according to the state of consciousness, it is necessary to understand that the consciousness and functions of a human being are two phenomena of a completely different order, of a different nature, dependent on diverse causes, and that the one it can exist without the other. Functions can exist without consciousness, and consciousness can exist without functions.
As previously stated that there are four possible states of consciousness for man: sleep, waking consciousness, self-consciousness, objective consciousness, but man lives in only two of those states; partly in sleep and partly in what is sometimes called "waking consciousness." It is as if he owned a four-story house, but lived only on the bottom two floors.
The first of the states of consciousness, the lowest, is sleep. It is a purely subjective and passive state. Man is surrounded by dreams. Their psychic functions all work without any direction. There is no logic, there is no continuity, there is no cause or results in dreams. Imagine purely subjective, echoes of past experiences or echoes of vague perceptions of the moment, noises that reach the sleeper, bodily sensations such as slight pain, sensation of muscular tension, all of which pierces the spirit without leaving more than a trace of memory. and almost always without leaving any trace.
The second state of consciousness appears when man wakes up.
Therefore the following hypothesis can be elaborated, and thus try to guide and identify the actions of human beings.
If the human being is able to understand and transform the impressions produced by anger, hatred, envy, lust, pride, greed, ambition, laziness (defects or selves), among others, then he will have the ability to understand and transform self-awareness, since all the words of an insulter have no more value than that given by the insulted person, it can be said to be worthless, that is, they remain as a bad check.
Only when the human being understands himself, and transforms any impression or everyday situation, then the impressions or events of such situation into something different, for example in love, in compassion, on the part of the insulted, and this naturally means transformation of self-awareness.
If the human being works hard to understand and transform everything that exists (impressions of things from the physical or sensible world that he obtains through the sensory organs or the mediator) within him, and that they are nothing but impressions and sensations, the which you have stored within the human brain, but which are impregnated with feelings and emotions (mental or mental loads), then you will be able to identify, analyze, interpret and understand how these impressions influence you (psychological self, personality), and thus also how they are manifested abroad through actions and results within society.
If the subject understands and transforms everything that exists and that has been stored within the human brain through interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships (individual and historical processes), then a transformation of consciousness will take place in it that will allow reaching other higher levels (reasoning, reflection, meta thoughts) that will bring with them an understanding of everyday events, and will also achieve happiness, peace and tranquility, which will manifest as harmony in the environment.
2. The Human Consciousness
Just as the sciences of man are the only solid foundation for the other sciences, so the only solid foundation that we can give to the science of man necessarily rests on EXPERIENCE and OBSERVATION. The organ of knowledge or reason is consciousness (a set of mental processes internal to the subject).
It is important to know how KNOWLEDGE or KNOWLEDGE is obtained through OBSERVATION and EXPERIENCE in man through CONSCIOUSNESS.1
What is consciousness?
It is the organ of knowledge; it is a heterogeneous process, within which knowledge is included. CONSCIENCE is not always a passive recipient. It orders and elaborates all the sensations and emotions and mental processes that gradually enter it.
THE CONSCIENCE is, according to David Hume (1711-1776) a kind of theater where the different judgments appear succeeding each other; they pass, they return, they leave and they mix in an infinity of positions and situations.
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, means being aware of our humor (moods) and also of our ideas about humor (John Mayer). It can also be, an attention to more internal states of consciousness that does not provoke reaction or judgment, this sensitivity may also be less even.
CONSCIENCE is an essential feature of everything that exists {…}, an evidence that manifests itself in its coherence and systematic conformity to the law that organic totalities exhibit. It is possible to suspect that MATTER only corresponds to one level of reality; the other level is that of consciousness and its behavioral manifestations that do not exclude its coincidence in matter, but also transcends it.
2.1. Development of Consciousness as the Core of Character
David Ausubel has described the fundamental psychological capacities of consciousness as "the aspect of ego structure that deals with the cognitive-emotional organization of moral values."
These psychological capacities can be related to the purpose of classifying them. When compared to the classification of affective skills, other possibilities of action that the teacher has to promote socialization are perceived. It is evident, for example, that high-level skills and abilities are necessarily complementary, and therefore there is the possibility of interdependence between the lower levels of both classifications.
About this interdependence, the fact that the socialization process depends on an adequate development at each successive level is illustrated.
The following descriptions refer to the development of the Fundamental Psychological Capacities on which the Consciousness is based, they highlight the importance of understanding emotional and social skills for teaching.
1. The ability to anticipate consequences. Ausubel suggests that the activity of consciousness presupposes the ability to anticipate unpleasant consequences. It doesn't matter what the punishment, insecurity, anxiety or guilt is; consciousness cannot lead to inhibitory control of behavior if the child cannot project the consequences of her actions into her imagination before carrying them out.
Although the ability to foresee is fundamental for the development of consciousness, in the case of many people its meaning does not disappear but remains one of the most important factors that govern their relationships with others. For example, those students who have a limited intelligence or a limited value system, may be placed in a too complex social situation that prevents them from appreciating the consequences of their actions; very often they are punished for what is nothing but ignorance.
In such cases, the legal maxim that ignoring the law is not an excuse runs counter to professional liability.
Presumably, receiving and responding skills will depend on a certain degree of stability in the experience one has to anticipate the consequences.
2. the ability to tolerate frustration. The development of self-control implies the existence of a certain compensating force. On the one hand, the impulse towards immediate satisfaction works, while on the opposite side there is another that justifies postponing it. The child who wishes to retain the approval of her parents learns to defer the satisfaction of those pleasurable impulses which are contrary to the express wishes of her parents.
The capacity to tolerate frustration is essential for the basic mutuality that must exist in an effective disappointment and response, that is, in the relationships between the ego and the rest in which affective skills that require this form of self-discipline intervene.
3. Ability to internalize values. This psychological aspect is considered as the ability to assimilate external norms or to create others that, in one case or another will exert a relatively stable internal directional influence on behavior… The process of Internalization in relation to the development of consciousness differs from Internalization of any other value only in the fact that a moral factor intervenes.
The Internalization of values can be carried out in several ways: through emotional identification with another person (for example, the child with the mother who shows affection): through the adoption of values for utility or convenience; or as a result of the rational assessment or subsequent adoption of the same for considering them of benefit. In this situation, the most important variables are the quality of the ego's relationships with others and the values expressed in the behavior of the people with whom the individual interacts. Thus, the student who considers that adults in general are hostile limits their access to many sources of values, which also occurs with the student from a home where both parents lack an integrated value system.
Ideas, impressions, sensations and subconscious thoughts play a very important role in the world of thought. It is now understood that in every conscious act, there are many things that belong to the subconscious region.
Beyond the domain of the conscious the great region of the subconscious extends. This subconscious region holds many mysteries that hold the attention of psychologists and other thinkers. It is estimated that less than ten percent of the mental operations of daily life are operated in the great region of the subconscious. What we call conscious thought is nothing more than the tops of submerged mountains, the mass of which is hidden by the waters. We are like a jungle, on a deep night, with a flashlight that projects a small luminous circle around us, surrounded by an extensive ring of twilight after which there is nothing but darkness, a work is carried out whose results are, when it is necessary, introduced into the luminous circle that we call CONSCIENCE.
Memory is primarily a function of our subconscious mind. It is in the great region of the subconscious that the memory's great warehouse is located.
From the moment we receive an impression to the moment it returns to the field of the conscious, the subconscious faculties are at work. We receive and store an impression; Where do we store it?
It is not in the conscious region, but we would have it constantly present, but in the depths of the subconscious store, mixed with other impressions, and often with so much carelessness that it is almost impossible for us to find it again when we need it. Is it where it hid during the years that often elapse between the time of storage and the time of life? What medium do we use when we want to remember an impression? Simply an order that starts from the will and directs the workers of the subconscious warehouse to find and bring out the impression kept for so long.
Consciousness cannot be considered synonymous with mind. If we treat consciousness and mind as being of equal length and move the idea of the subconscious domain of the intellect aside, we will not be able to explain where everything else in the mind is found during a particular conscious state, where all the other items in the assortment are found. mental outside the particular object employed at this time.
The domain of the conscious at any time is very limited; similar to when you look under a microscope or a telescope, where you can see nothing but what is in the field of the instrument, everything that is outside this field that does not exist at the moment. The mind is constantly full of ideas, thoughts, impressions, etc., of which we are absolutely unaware until they reach the field of consciousness.
It is believed that every impression received, every thought conceived, every act performed is recorded somewhere in the great subconscious store of the mind and that nothing is absolutely forgotten forever. Many things that seem forgotten many years, reappear in the field of consciousness when called by some association of ideas, some desire, some need, some effort.
Many mental impressions will never appear again in the field of consciousness, because there is no need; however, they will be hidden deep in the mind, waiting for the hour to be used, just as future light and heat are hidden in the layers of coal that are discovered on the surface of the earth, waiting for the moment to be put In use.
At any moment, we are only aware of a very small part of what is stored in the mind. Many things that seem forgotten, and that on many occasions we have wanted to remember, return at a given moment, apparently involuntarily, in the field of consciousness, as if by their own movement.7
2.2. We assume that consciousness:
- It is unconscious, It is conscious, It has a Corporal base, It has a Social base, It has a Mental Base, It has a Psyche base (soul), It has a Spirit base (reality that transcends matter).
Psychology deals with the study of human consciousness and its behavioral manifestations (study of the behavior and cognitive processes of the subjects).
What does the concept "psychology" mean, and when did it appear?
The term "psychology" is said to be derived from the Greek words psyche, soul, and logos, science; then psychology is the science of the soul. This term was already in the scientific literature in the tenth century (in addition to the term "pneumatology", which was used more frequently), but it was officially introduced in the second half of the eighteenth century, when psychology separated from philosophy, as a branch of knowing independent of knowledge.
Attempts to learn about the human psyche date back to time immemorial. The first systematic exposition of psychological facts was made by Aristotle (384-322 BC) who generalized the experience of the knowledge of the spiritual life of men accumulated already then. He titled his treatise on the soul. Much later, the Roman doctor and naturalist Claudio Galeno, who lived approximately in the years 130-200 of our era, tried to demonstrate with animal experiments that the brain is the organ of sensations and thought.
Galen believed that spiritual processes were produced by a psychic pneuma (pneuma in Greek means spirit) that circulates through the nerves, that they transmit sensations from the sense organs to the brain, and from this the orders go out to the motor organs
-But it is known that neither man nor animals have souls.
How can there be a science of what does not exist?
We have to accept that there cannot be a science of what does not exist. But the names of the sciences were historically formed: their content changes continuously, and it makes no sense to change the names. Then it would be necessary to give a new name to many sciences. The content of physics is only part of natural history, although its name comes from the Greek word physis, nature.
Of course, the soul does not exist in its idealistic and religious conception. But there are psychic processes, such as: sensation, perception, conception, thought, emotions, will and language.
For Aristotle also described in his treatise, to a greater degree, real psychic phenomena, and not the abstract soul, of which Christianity (scholastic thought) later began to speak, greatly misrepresenting Aristotle's concepts.
Idealists have always tried and continue to interpret the psyches as a manifestation of a certain primary spiritual principle, independent of matter. Dialectical materialism affirms that the psyche is secondary, since it owes its origin to matter; and that being, matter and nature are primary.
The history of psychology is the history of the struggle of materialism against idealism, and of its victory over it. Whatever the world concepts may be in the details, ultimately they can all be divided into two groups. If a person believes that the surrounding world exists only in his consciousness, he is idealistic. If you believe that the sensible world, nature and being exist outside and independently of your consciousness, you are materialistic. In a word, for the materialist, the primary thing is being; for the idealist, consciousness.
Many mistakes have been made in understanding psychic phenomena. Thus, Baruch Espinosa (1632-1677), a Dutch philosopher, atheist, and materialist, considered thought as an eternal attribute of matter. Since the middle of the last century, the psychophysical parallelism has acquired wide diffusion, according to which psychic and physiological phenomena develop independently, parallel to each other. From the beginning of our century, in American psychology behaviorism (English behavior, conduct; 1925) spread; This reactionary tendency denies man's consciousness and conscious activity.
2.3. Time, conscience and me
It can be said that, in this case, I am not merely me, the author, but also me, the reader. And even more reader than author. And not only because the author is old and the reader is young, but also because this book has been written for and by the reader.
Time speeds up your career. Carlos Marx wrote that it took millennia for the hunger that forced people to swallow raw meat with their hands, nails and teeth, to turn into hunger that is satisfied by eating meat cooked with a knife and fork. Federico Engels wrote that it took centuries for the sexual love of the ancients to acquire the moral criterion of reciprocity. But it only took a few decades of socialist rule, for example, to transform Soviet Central Asians, to transform work, from painful necessity into exhilarating spiritual demand, to make the simple Soviet worker more intellectual than the ordinary bourgeois intellectual. And that process is accelerated to the naked eye.
The age in which we live carried on its back all the inheritance of the past; and at the same time we already see clearly our communist and capitalist future in our present, as ideological doctrines.
Therefore, our conscience not only reflects the present, but it has also accumulated all the past and longs for the future. Marx said that the individual is a social product, since consciousness and language develop together at work.
In different people, consciousness in its different manifestations corresponds to the present, or presents "moles", survivals of the past, or is ahead of today. And so it can happen in everything: in interests and aspirations, in the conception of the world and in conduct, in customs and character.
But I want my conscience to free from the bad inheritance of the past, to take from it only the good for the future. I want my conscience, in addition to marching in unison with time, to improve it, to transfer my morning to my present. I want to help you in this. And he wants to help you and me. The more man strives to achieve it, the more conscious he considers himself. It is no coincidence that the words "consciousness" and "knowledge" have a common root. The broader and deeper the knowledge of man, the clearer and richer his consciousness and the more conscious he is.
What are the functions of Human Consciousness? The functions of consciousness are perception, desire, will, and action.
What are the psychic facts, contents of consciousness or substantive states? They are the elemental sensations, images, feelings and thoughts.
What are the structures of consciousness? The structures of consciousness - some of whose facets are unconscious are the body, the mind, the soul and the spirit.
What are the states of consciousness?
States of consciousness can be normal (such as wakefulness, sleep, and deep sleep) or altered (such as mediative and non-ordinary states of consciousness).
What are the modes of consciousness?
Modalities of consciousness include aesthetics, morals, and science. The development of consciousness covers a wide spectrum that goes from the prepersonal to the personal and, from there, to the transpersonal; from the subconscious to the self-conscious and from there to the superconscious, from the id to the ego and from there to the spirit.
2.4. There are two kinds of consciousness content
Impressions and representations (ideas). The first are the sensations experienced, and the second are copies made by the consciousness or reproductions of the impressions or sensations.
The impressions (perception or sensation that is achieved through the senses or the world of the senses) are themselves the given, the ultimate reality; but representations, such as copies or reproductions, require analysis to know from which impressions they are derived.
So there are two kinds of impressions
- Those that provide Knowledge, Impressions of feeling and will.
Both are usually transformed into Ideas (that is, representations as reproduced contents of consciousness).
Examples of ideas are the geometric figures, the colors, the weight of an object, the shape, etc., that are remembered or imagined.
Ideas are also the sentimental representations of joy or pain and desires or volitions; that like the previous ones, they are the result of a memory or of the imagination.
All the contents of consciousness or perceptions are of two kinds: impressions and ideas. The first are properly sensations (hearing, seeing, feeling, wanting, rejecting…); the latter, representations (ideas), rather than weakened, of the former. In turn, the impressions are subdivided into two groups:
- Impressions of feeling and, impressions of reflection.
Here is an impression that makes you feel hot or cold, thirsty or hungry through the senses. The consciousness then produces a copy of it, a copy that usually remains after the sensation has vanished. This copy is called Idea, and the impression where it comes from, impression of sensation. When such an idea accompanied by pleasure or pain (or is represented by an emotion) occurs later in the soul, new impressions of desire or aversion, joy or fear, etc., can arise. These last impressions are reflections of reflection.
All objects of knowledge are divided into two groups:
- Representations (facts) and, reflective relationships of these.
2.5. Mechanisms for the Construction of Ideas or Representations
By what mechanisms are ideas formed in the individual? Plato thought that reality is divided into two.
a) One part is the world of the senses, about which we can only get imperfect knowledge using our five senses (approximate and imperfect). Of everything in the world of the senses, we can say that everything flows and that nothing remains. There is nothing in the world of the senses, it is just a lot of things that arise and perish.
b) The other part is the world of Ideas, about which we can get certain knowledge, through the use of reason. Therefore, this world of Ideas cannot be recognized by the senses. On the other hand, Ideas are eternal and immutable.
According to Plato, the human being is also divided into two parts. We have a body that flows, and that, therefore, is inextricably linked to the world of the senses, and ends in the same way as all other things belonging to the world of the senses (such as a soap bubble). All of our senses are tied to our bodies and are therefore unreliable. But we also have an immortal soul, the dwelling place of reason. Precisely because the soul is not material, it can be the world of Ideas.
2.6. The Knowledge Acquisition Process as an Index of Conditions
The mind has to face an avalanche of information from two sources: 1) the situation-problem of the moment, from which information is obtained through the senses, and 2) the storage of knowledge through the process of recovery or of remembrance. If this information is conceived in terms of the simplest element that the mind can distinguish through any of its senses, the total number of such elements of information in a problem situation that reach the mind is astronomical. For example, the total possible information in relation to the colors of a painting would imply several million of this type of differentiable elements.
The volume of these would be such that the plant would be congested. Let's keep in mind that the mind has to process not only the input but also the product in the ability that we call communication.
2.6.1. Information Processing
The mind creates very effective ways to handle or process this torrent of information. For the purposes of the school classroom, it is appropriate to consider them as discriminatory or selective; classification or grouping and generalizing, that is, it goes beyond the information received at the time-
However, although it is proper to speak of the discrimination, classification and generalization of the information that comes and goes, there are only three aspects (although basic) of the complex ability of the informational process. This stability encompasses not only these three aspects, but all the cognitive abilities that participate in the development of intellectual capacity, which is a fundamental concern of pedagogy.
2.7. Members of the intellectual capacity
Intellectual capacity is made up of:
1. Knowledge - information accumulated from previous experiences may be available when an individual needs to solve a problem. It is possible to speak of knowledge in terms of:
- a) Quantity: the number of information elements related to a problem, and b) Quality: the usefulness of knowledge to solve problems by allowing new problems to be considered as special cases of what is already known.
2. Cognitive abilities- types of operation that act on the information that is had on previous experiences. For pedagogical purposes we can group them into:
- a) Thinking skills: a number of complex skills that are applied in isolation or together, and b) Communication skills: related to the organization and presentation of information intended to inform and understand another individual, or to systematize the information for their own use. 13
John Locke (1632-1704), uses the Introspective Method (psychological method) as two different ways, to describe experiences in the human being.
- The External experience comes from SENSATION and PERCEPTION (the world of the senses according to Plato) which is the modification that the soul experiences when the senses directly excite it (external factors, stimuli). Internal experience is the path of reflection which is the soul's self-perception of its own happening (the world of ideas according to Plato).
Locke in the face of the confusion and disorientation caused by the erroneous methods of thought prevailing in his time, tried, in his Essay on Human Understanding, to establish the limits of reasoning. Locke argues that truth must be limited to what can be inferred or logically constructed through sensory experience; that the infallible proof of love of truth lies in "not taking into consideration any proposition with greater certainty than the one that can facilitate the proof on which it is built", in order that the degree of settlement that we lend to a certain point from view lies in the existing foundations of probability in its favor.
And since metaphysical speculations and theological dogmas do not have such a basis, such speculations and dogmas must not be taken into consideration. If such hypotheses are accepted as real truths, we then find ourselves "living in a sleepy species" in "a state of enlightened ignorance."
During the 17th century, several philosophers belonging to the philosophical current of Empiricism (John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume, among others) adopted the point of view that we have absolutely no content in consciousness before acquiring our experiences through the senses. Since an empiricist wants to derive all knowledge about the world from what our senses (experiences) tell us.
John Locke (1632-1704) tries to clarify two questions. In the first place, he asks where the human being receives his ideas and concepts. Secondly, if we can trust what our senses do not count. Locke is convinced that all we have of thoughts and concepts are only reflections of what we have seen and heard. Before capturing with our senses, our consciousness is like a tabula rasa, or blank blackboard.
There is a line that goes from Socrates and Plato and passes through Saint Augustine before reaching Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Leibniz. During the 17th century, all these philosophers were RATIONALIST. They believed that REASON is the only sure source of knowledge. Yes, a RATIONALIST believes in REASON as a source of knowledge. He believes that the human being is born with certain ideas, which therefore exist in the consciousness of men before any experience.
Plato says that we cannot know anything for sure about something that is constantly changing. About what belongs to the world of the senses, that is, what we can feel and touch, we can only have unsafe ideas or hypotheses. We can only have certain knowledge of what we see with reason. The visual faculty itself can vary from one person to another. However, we can trust what reason tells us, because the reason is the same for all people; the reason is the opposite of opinions and opinions. We could say that reason is eternal and universal precisely because it only pronounces itself on eternal and universal matters. We can only have vague ideas about what we feel, but we can get certain knowledge about what we recognize with reason.
What is reasoning?
Reasoning is a logical operation through which, based on one or more judgments, the validity, possibility or falsity of a different judgment is derived. In general, the judgments on which reasoning is based express knowledge already acquired or, at least, hypothesized.
When the operation is rigorously carried out and the derived judgment follows logically from the antecedent judgments, the reasoning is called inference. The judgments that serve as a starting point are called premises and play the role of being the conditions of inference. The result that is obtained, that is, the judgment inferred as a consequence, is called a conclusion.
The inference allows to extract from the already established knowledge, other knowledge that is implicit in the premises or that is possible according to them. When a less general knowledge than that expressed in the premises is reached in the conclusion, a deductive inference will have been made. When the conclusion constitutes a synthesis of the premises and, therefore, a more general knowledge, an inductive inference will have been practiced. And, when the conclusion has the same degree of generality or particularity as the premises, then a transductive inference will have been executed. The execution of the inferences is carried out according to certain rules that have been elucidated in experience and formulated strictly by logic.
In any case, what is obtained as the conclusion of an inference is simply a judgment of possibility, or what is the same, a hypothesis.
How can man achieve the transformation of human consciousness?
The transformation of itself can only be possible through the understanding, acceptance and transformation of everything that exists within the human mind (feelings, emotions, desires, impressions, sensations, information from the physical or sensitive world product of the stimulation of the sense organs by the objects), since all this information is not more than impressions product of the stimuli of the objects to the sensory organs of the subject, but that these impressions are administered by the personality and this does not carry out selection and work as it should be, since it sends information to the wrong places and this brings consequences and disorders within the human being, since the personality represents the pluralized self (the ego, the defects).
Although it is true that, in the Law of the three states of the evolution of man and of Humanity (Augusto Comte, 1830) we can appreciate, how the human being first develops theological thought (myth, superstition, polytheistic, monotheistic religion), and little by little he accesses Metaphysical thought (but he finds physical aspects, or an abstract thought), and finally the human being manages to take advantage of experience and develop other higher faculties of human nature such as: thought, learning, memory, imagination, creativity and language. And it is so,as the previous processes allow the subject to develop and systematize scientific thought (late 17th century and early 18th century) an inductive method (Francis Bacón 1561-1626) based on observation and experimentation of natural events or phenomena, contrary to Syllogism Aristotelian, and supported by concepts, principles, postulates, laws and theories that help to relate and confront the empirical data of natural events or phenomena, and thus be able to identify, analyze, understand, interpret, describe and explain the causes and consequences (effects or results) of the phenomena, thus allowing the obtaining and accumulation of knowledge.laws and theories that help to relate and confront the empirical data of natural events or phenomena, and thus be able to identify, analyze, understand, interpret, describe and explain the causes and consequences (effects or results) of phenomena, thus allowing obtaining and accumulating knowledge.laws and theories that help to relate and confront the empirical data of natural events or phenomena, and thus be able to identify, analyze, understand, interpret, describe and explain the causes and consequences (effects or results) of phenomena, thus allowing obtaining and accumulating knowledge.
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