>>14127921>What even is this thing?A brain. It's a fatty collection of cells that squirt chemicals at each other.
>What is cognition?the process of 'knowing' or acquiring knowledge. And before you ask: knowledge is an awareness of facts, feelings, and/or experiences. so cognition is how you come to be aware of facts, feelings and/or experiences.
>How is abstract thought that is entirely separate from sensory input even possible?Why do you presume they must be connected? Abstract thought primarily concerns symbols and analogies, the content of the sign and signified or the subjects of analogy are irrelevant, indeed it is possible to make analogies to other analogies. So while much of abstract thought is somewhat rooted in infantile sensory perceptions, clearly there is a mechanism that would allow abstract thought to exist without it since we can have symbols stand in for symbols, we can make abstract analogies to other abstract analogies.
