Beginnings of Cognitive Science - Advances in Cognitive Information Systems - page 2

Fig. 1.1. Porphyry's tree presenting the diagram of Peter of Spain (1239/1947). Source: de-
veloped on the basis of [24]
In this diagram, one can observe how an ideal genus called the 'being' moves
to a lower level, as a sub-type and one of genera of this being turns into a being
called the 'body', and at the same time a non-material genus of a 'being' at a
lower level turns into the sphere of the 'spirit'. The entire technique of heritage
presented in the process shown in the Porphyry's diagram also combines other
categories, which include living organisms, defined as animate 'beings' made of
matter and a 'man' defined as a 'being' that is rational, sentient, living and made
of matter. Porphyry uniquely points to representatives of the human species, in
particular the known fathers of philosophy: Socrates, Aristotle and Plato.
Cognitive science developed further in the times of Blessed Ramon Llull, the
first to propose a concept of the machine application of sentences for simple cate-
gorisation jobs. It is worth noting that he did this as early as in the 13 th century.
Ramon Llull invented a mechanical device, a logical machine, in which the
subjects and predicates of theological statements were arranged in circles, squares,
triangles and other geometrical figures and when a lever was thrown, a crank han-
dle or a wheel turned, these statements formed true or false sentences, proving
themselves. Llull called this device Ars Magna [66] and devoted his most impor-
tant works to its description. His work, Ars Magna, was physically a set of in-
scribed discs with primary concepts which could be combined in various ways by
the appropriate rotation of these discs (Fig. 1.2).