Kognitionens logikker

Handling, sprog og datamater

Abstract

In this paper, the possible influence of computers on human cognition is discussed. It is asked whether cognition is logical in the same sense as information processing in computers, i. e., formal logic. Evidence is cited to show that processes of thinking do not follow rules of formal logic, and that conceptual knowledge, which is the object of thinking, is not organized in logical classes. On the contrary, the "logic" of thought appears to be logic of activity - of real-world action. Our acts (operations) determine which properties of the world are conceptualized. In this universe of operational knowledge, logical rules are unnecessary because the knowledge is itself strructured to support acitivty, intemal as well as external. However, the use of symbolic media of ex pression results in selective explication of operational knowledge, potentially making it conscious. The formal languages of computer programming and control seem particularly powerful media for explication procedural knowledge, i. e., knowledge about how acts and thought processes are performed. Preconditions for achieving this gain in explicit knowledge are presumably that students Iearn to express themselves in a suitable programming language and that they possess previous operational knowledge of the processes they attempt to program.