Abstract
Analogical models in science enable us to understand unobservable theoretical entities. We need this basic understanding, even in the case of mental phenomena, where multiple cognitive principles are involved. In this article, we suggest an analogical model of cognition that incorporates basic insights from the philosophies of science and theology, which could serve as a point of contact for the dialogue between science and theology. For this purpose, we presuppose six stages of understanding and the existence of six different theoretical cognitive principles that have their own characteristics, which coincide with some Biblical characters, theological reflections and scientific approaches to finding the truth. The choice of the analogical model and the cognitive principles is justified with their ability to organize, structure and make sense of different segments of scientific and theological knowledge, which otherwise seem confused, unrelated and without structure. The analogical model gives us a big picture of their relations and confirms the ability of the observable macroworld and phenomenological experience to assist us in understanding the realities that, at first sight, seem incomprehensible.
Highlights
The American Federation of Teachers (8 August 2014) defined cognitive science as “an interdisciplinary field of researchers from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, computer science, and anthropology that seek to understand the mind”
What do we see in the pile of epistemological concepts that we use in science, philosophy, theology, and in everyday life? In this article, we argue that, in this pile, we can see a pattern of a mountain with three peaks that connects individual segments of human knowledge into a meaningful whole and makes sense of our world
We presented an analogical model of cognitive principles that perform specific cognitive functions
Summary
The American Federation of Teachers (8 August 2014) defined cognitive science as “an interdisciplinary field of researchers from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, computer science, and anthropology that seek to understand the mind”. In this article, which consists of the model of cognitive principles and its theoretical explanation, we want to show that theology, which is missing in this definition, is a key factor for correct understanding of the mind. Johnson-Laird, in his 1983 book, writes about the importance of models for cognition:. “Human beings, do not apprehend the world directly; they possess only an internal representation of it, because perception is the construction of a model of the world”. It is true that human reasoning depends on mental models of abstract entities, which are formed by perceptions. Perception is much more than the construction of models, through which we can grasp principal and theoretical meaning of the world. Alister McGrath states that the process of perception “involves thinking about (or “knowing”), affective responding to, and enactive interaction with the world” (McGrath 2008, p. 221)
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