Antique Roots of the Question of the Reliability of Knowledge in Modern Cognitive Sciences

The article aims to substantiate that the question of the reliability of sensory perception, relevant for modern cognitive sciences (H. Putnam, J. McDowell, R. Foley, T. Nagel, etc.), was raised in ancient philosophy, including in the teachings of Parmenides, Zeno, Democritus, Plato. These great philosophers discovered abstract thinking and identified the problem of its objects. In order to identify in the
teachings of ancient thinkers those ideas that have found their development in the history of philosophy and remain significant in modern cognitive research, the article uses methods of structural and comparative analysis. The application of this methodology allows us to substantiate that it was Parmenides, Zeno,
Democritus, Plato who fi rst raised questions about the intentionality of knowledge, about the intelligible and
sensually perceived world, about the identity of being and thinking, about the reliability of sensual and rational
knowledge, about the object of abstract thinking, etc. Thus, it is justifi ed that the problems of modern
cognitive science have deep historical and philosophical roots.