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Chapter 1
Beginnings of Cognitive Science
The first mention of cognitive science can be found in the works of Aristotle, who
proposed two dominant categorisation methods describing all varieties of cognitive
science in different ways. Aristotle's considerations, also of the concept of a cate-
gory, led to distinguishing accidental and substantive categories based on the differ-
ences Aristotle saw between the subject of a sentence treated as the substance and
the predicate treated as an accidental category. The substantive category includes
concepts that describe something and present something concrete, so they were a
'concrete substance', the subject of a sentence, something material. Within the acci-
dental categories, Aristotle distinguished nine basic notions, which included quan-
tity, quality, relation, place, time, location, property, action and sensation.
Aristotle's considerations gave birth to a method currently referred to as 'top-
down', which defines a concept based on the type (genus) and the appearance of a
single or several differences (differentiae) allowing new genera of forms from to
be distinguished other forms of the same genus. This type of propositions Aristotle
formulated in his works on logic, but in those on biology he criticised the limita-
tions of the top-down approach and at the same time proposed an approach cur-
rently called 'bottom-up', which starts with detailed descriptions and definitions
of an individual, classifying collections of individuals into species and genera and
grouping different genera in groups. Aristotle considered the top-down method to
be right for presenting and describing the results of his analyses, reasoning and
proofs on this method, but he clearly favoured setting apart the bottom-up method
as better for discovering subsequent research procedures on a new object.
In the third century after Christ, Aristotle's considerations of a concept, defini-
tion and category became the foundation of the work by Porphyry
1
, who under-
took the effort of writing a commentary to Aristotle's categorisation. This com-
mentary contained the first notes on a tree diagram shown in Figure 1.1.
This tree shows categories and references to syllogisms with Aristotelian laws
and rules concerning reasons associated with genera and types of defined subgenera.
The diagram shows an ideal genus, genera, lower levels, subgenera, the closest
level, a species and an individual.
1
Porphyry, a recognised ancient Napoli philosopher and astrologist. Known as commenter of
Plato's and Aristotle's works, edited the works of the ancient philosopher Plotinus. Por-
phyry became famous for his collection of commentaries written to Aristotle's
Categories
,
known as
Isagoga
, which constituted the most important text on logic in the Middle Ages
and formed the starting point of research on logic and the dispute about universals. Por-
phyry's commentaries showing the dependencies of species and genera presented using a
tree became the cornerstone of contemporary taxonomy.
