[Fis] affect and cognition

[Krassimir Markov]

Dear Kate,
Thank you very much for the advice and links.
Our understanding is completely in sync with yours.
Here is an excerpt from the conclusion of an article that is in the process
of initial development by me and Prof. Velina Slavova, who is a leading
cognitive scientist studying emotions (
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Mw6-wboAAAAJ&hl=en__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!SGQFDP2MxGWErf5NXh10LUIQMyE_MOC5lQLyD5AT8JDyqvQdZQ4Z3oQ8-wbaZHg-Zy-cKmSEm_ghUHfondo$ ). I also
attach the scheme that is the basis of the article.
If you are intrigued by our approach and have the opportunity, I most
politely invite you to join us and complete the article together.
With respect,
Krassimir
PS: This is my third post, so I'll be quiet until next week.


*12. Conclusion*

The journey through this paper has traced a simple but profound insight:
the mind is an *informational architecture* in which affect and cognition
are inseparable partners in the creation of meaning. Affect provides
*valence* — the evaluative force that marks what matters. Cognition
provides *form* — the structural organization that turns information into
knowledge. Meaning emerges not from either dimension alone but from their
dynamic interplay. This insight, though grounded in contemporary
neuroscience and cognitive science, resonates with philosophical traditions
across cultures and centuries.

We began by challenging the historical separation of emotion and cognition
— a separation rooted in the computational metaphors of early cognitive
science (Fodor, 1983; Newell & Simon, 1976) and reinforced by
methodological habits that treated feeling and thinking as distinct
domains. Affective neuroscience overturned this dichotomy by showing that
emotional systems are evolutionarily ancient, biologically fundamental, and
essential for survival, learning, and decision‑making (Panksepp, 1998;
LeDoux, 1996). Cognitive science, especially in its predictive processing
form, revealed that cognition is not passive computation but active
inference — a continuous attempt to predict and make sense of the world
(Clark, 2013; Friston, 2010).

These developments converge on a single conclusion: *emotion and cognition
are two aspects of one informational process*.

To articulate this process, we introduced a refined conceptual sequence:
*- Data* is raw sensory signal.
*- Information* is a recognized signal — data + meaning.
*- Knowledge* is integrated information — structured meaning.
*- Memory* is stabilized knowledge — enduring structure.
*- Meaning* emerges when affective valence and cognitive form converge.

This sequence clarifies how the mind transforms the flux of sensory input
into a coherent world. It also clarifies the role of affect: affect
determines which data becomes information and which information becomes
knowledge. Without affective evaluation, cognition would be directionless;
without cognitive structure, affect would be chaotic. Together, they form
the basis of meaning.

The informational architecture developed in this paper— represented in
Figure 1 — captures this integration. It shows the mind as a layered
ecology in which valence and form interact continuously, shaping
perception, memory, decision‑making, and world‑disclosure. This
architecture is not a metaphor but a conceptual model grounded in empirical
research and philosophical insight.

The comparative philosophical analysis revealed that this integrated view
is not new. Phenomenology, Yogācāra Buddhism, Daoism, and Neo‑Confucianism
all emphasize the unity of affect and cognition in the constitution of
experience (Heidegger, 1962). These traditions enrich our understanding by
showing that meaning is relational, embodied, and situated — not a property
of the mind alone but of the organism‑in‑the‑world.
...

Ultimately, the integrated model developed in this paper points toward a
unified science of meaning — one that bridges biological, cognitive,
phenomenological, and cultural levels of explanation. Such a science would
not reduce meaning to neural mechanisms or abstract representations. It
would treat meaning as an emergent property of an informational ecology — a
dynamic interplay of valence and form across the entire
data–information–knowledge pipeline.

For non‑specialists, the conclusion is simple:
*We understand the world through the meeting of feeling and thinking.*
Emotion tells us why something matters; cognition tells us what it is and
how it fits into our world. Meaning is born when these two dimensions come
together.

This paper has offered a framework for understanding that process — not as
a metaphor, but as a scientifically grounded, philosophically informed
model of the mind. It invites further exploration, deeper integration, and
continued dialogue across disciplines. The mind is not a machine and not a
mystery; it is an informational ecology in which valence and form co‑create
the meaningful world we inhabit.


[image: image.png]

*References*

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