Constructivist schemes in the contemporary theory of cognition. Evolutionary constructivism

The paper focuses on the analysis of constructivism in the philosophical theory of cognition. Constructivism as a cognitive practice states an active cognitive position of the subject who perceives by transforming, creating and constructing the environment. A constructivist approach in epistemology was initiated by Immanuel Kant. Foregrounding of constructivism was conditioned by addressing to the cognition of complex self-developing systems. Contemporary constructivism in a variety of its forms differs from classical by denial of existence of a predetermined phenomenon for the conscience. The most acknowledged forms of contemporary constructivism are radical and social constructivism. Radical constructivism deliberately dissociates itself from metaphysical reflections about existence and regards cognition as a self-consistent process. The central problem of radical constructivism is not the substantiation of knowledge, not the reflection on what we cognize (knowledge of "what"), but the research of the process of cognition (knowledge of "how"). For followers of social constructivism, scientific knowledge is socially constructed. Herewith, knowledge ceases to be an individual property, but becomes a product of the activities of members of society. Radical constructivism, in its naturalistic and social versions, is opposed to the approach of constructive realism. It is revealed that constructive realism is a complex program of cognition research. The authors of the paper suggest a model of evolutionary constructivism. Evolutionary constructivism is based on the principles of realism, and proceeds from the fact that thinking does not reveal objects, but constructs them, extracting from reality what correlates with its activities. With such an approach, the circle "the world is in the brain, and the brain is in the world" transforms into an evolutionary spiral. According to evolutionary constructivism, there is no de-ontologization of reality; reality is interpreted as a process-system. The subject is understood as a permanently self-determined integrity in the process of a communicative action, characterized by physiological, biological, social, cognitive and ethical parameters. Cognition within evolutionary constructivism can be called complexity cognition. This kind of complexity is engendered by the subject who realizes oneself not only as a part, but as a participant in the evolution of the world one cognizes, as the one who constructs this world with one's projective and communicative activity.

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