Evolution of Reason: From Biological Consciousness to Reflexive Cognition

This paper proposes a unified framework for understanding reflexive cognition as an evolutionary and structural extension of biological consciousness. Rather than treating rationality as a fixed faculty or logic engine, the model of Pure Reason presented here conceptualizes cognition as dynamic navigation across epistemic frames—enabled by frame-awareness, epistemic curvature, and adaptive reconfiguration. Drawing from cognitive neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and AI architecture, the paper maps the transition from reactive consciousness to reflexive reasoning, highlighting recursive metacognition as the key functional emergence. It further introduces the concept of Aletheia—truth as unfolding or disclosure—as the ontological horizon grounding this architecture. Pure Reason is not defined as a terminal state of intellect, but as a cognitive stance capable of recognizing and revising its own framing mechanisms. This framework connects human rational development, cognitive flexibility, and potential future architectures for artificial self-reflective intelligence.