Publication Details

Abstract

The paper deals with the role of assent (in Latine assentio, assensus) and instinct (in Latine appetitio) in the process of cognition. The author shows, that the Stoic instinct is a dynamic aspect in the processes of cognition, decision making and (free) action, its consequence being at the same time the assent, i. e. the approval of a given descriptive or prescriptive proposition as a true one. Tha paper wants to stress the remarcable rationalistic character of the Stoic epistemology - the only constitutive elemnent of the instinct is, at least in early Stoicism, the rational capacity of the soul. The three Stoic levels of cognition: opinion, understanding (catalepsis) and cognition are intoruced as related to various intensities of assent given to the particual meanings of the proposition.