Abstract

There is one major reason that the conception of nervous reflection cannot be directly associated with “cognition” even though it undoubtedly should be a vital component of the definition of this term. Namely, reflection, understood as the creation of equivalents of external stimuli, is a process that happens not only in the brains of living creatures, but also in inanimate matter. A thermometer “reflects” changes in temperature, but we would not say that it “knows” them—it is the man who knows the temperature when using a thermometer. Reflection means cognition only when it determines offensive or defensive reactions of an organism: when it constitutes an element of the mechanism of adaptation to the environment, it enables the individual to be guided by the reflected external phenomena. […]