ABSTRACT

Beside the regularly applied concepts (e.g. neuron, brain, sign, representation, code, sense, experience, perception, etc.) an additional collection of concepts (entities, interaction, border, inhomogeneity, dialectics, necessity and contingency, freedom, historicity, acquaintance and knowledge, culture.) is proposed for the better understanding mind and cognition. An anti-Parmenidian ontology is suggested in which all entities can be regarded as entities only in a certain context, i.e. all entities are inhomogeneous beings. In this ontology there are some essential common characteristics of the inorganic, the organic and the human beings. Representation is a key concept in the ontology of inhomogeneity. Taking into account the natural history a history of representation can be reconstructed: passive inorganic, active organic, and reflective human representations generate expression, acquaintance and knowledge. In the evolution of representation three essentially different strategies can be identified: the bound, the free and the mixed strategies. Bound representations generate acquaintance, free strategies generate knowledge. Human beings can follow both strategies at the same time - i.e. humans have a mixed representation strategy. In this way the advancement of freedom can be identified as a drive of the emergence and functioning of mind and cognition.

KEY WORDS

representation, inhomogeneity, ontology, acquaintance, knowledge

CLASSIFICATION