127 Quotes About Cognition

If the brain was simple enough to be understood - we would be too simple to understand it!

لقد كان الإدراك حقاً سبباً من أسباب الشقاء، إلا أننا لا يمكن أن نتخلى عنه ما إن نكبر، لأن اللامبالاة ستورثنا المزيد من الأذى، أدركتُ حينئذ أنه ما أن نكبر لا يعود في إمكاننا أن نتخلى عن الإدراك ولن نرغب في ذلك أصلاً، لأنه إذا ما حدث ذلك سنوسم بالجنون.

Thoughts pass from one individual to another, each time a little transformed, for each individual can attach to them somewhat different associations. Strictly speaking, the receiver never understands the thought exactly in the way that the transmitter intended it to be understood. After a series of such encounters, practically nothing is left of the original content. Whose thought is it that continues to circulate?

Human beings possess the gift of personal freedom and liberty of the mind. We each possess the sovereignty over the body and mind to define ourselves and embrace the values that we wish to exemplify. Personal autonomy enables humans to take independent action and use reason to establish moral values. We are part of nature. Consciousness, human cognition, and awareness of our own mortality allow us to script an independent survival reality and not merely react to environmental forces.

The current state of knowledge remains vague when history is not considered, just as history remains vague without substantive knowledge about the current state.

You can't see what you don't understand. But what you think you already understand, you'll fail to look at.

Question the answers, I repeated every class. Reevaluate your conclusions when the evidence changes.

I wanted that future officer to weigh decisions with a supple mind and to be comfortable with nuance and uncertainty.

We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought.