Gurevich, P. S. Is Perception Passive?

Abstract: Editor-in-chief analyzes Jean Piaget’s epistemological concept. He uses it to provide a modern interpretation of perception as a psychological concept. For a long time psychologists have believed that perception is a passive process, i.e. the external environment is perceived through sense organs and create an image of the reality in the mind of an individual. However, psychologists have failed to explain why not only different people but even one person may have different pictures of the reality. Piaget was the first one to emphasize the role of intelligence in the processing of information received from the external world. Therefore, Piaget gave the idea of the active role of perception. At the same time, it also became obvious that recognition of the active role of an individual still did not provide a complete solution of the problem. In his article Gurevich has used the method of historical analysis and techniques of the phenomenological analysis of a problem. He has also compared the traditional and new interpretations of activity/passivity of perception. The novelty of the article is in the criticizing of the Cartesian model of perception which identifies an individual with cogitation. Modern psychologists take into account philosophical critic of the Cartesian approach to human. The cognitive psychology model of perception and information processing is, in fact, an interactionist concept of cognition, its genesis and development in terms of causation interaction between the organism and environment. Cognitive processes are explained in terms of the interaction between the brain and the part of the environment that can be captured by the brain. The conclusion made by Gurevich is that modern psychology has all potentials to create a broader model of perception which would involve other people and more objects surrounding us.

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