Forms of thinking

Thinking is a kind of cognitive activity of a person. The main properties of thinking are generalization and mediation, because thanks to this mental activity, we can represent objects that we can not see, we can foresee the internal qualities of an object when we see it only from the outside, we have the opportunity to talk about things that are not there.

In the course of thinking, a person has to solve a variety of different tasks, in the overcoming of which we are helped by various forms of thinking.

Basic forms of thinking

The main forms of thinking are concept, judgment and reasoning.

The concept of

The concept is a reflection of the general properties of objects and their generalization by distinguishing these qualities. For example, without concepts, botanists would have to give a separate name to each pine growing in the forest, and thanks to this form of thinking we can simply say "pine", meaning all plants that have certain similarities.

Concepts can be general, individual, concrete and abstract. General concepts refer to one group of objects with a common name and common properties. Single concepts refer to one person, describing specifically his personal property - "a man with a choleric temperament ."

A specific concept refers to an easily presented object - the "cortex of the brain".

And the last type of this form of thinking in logic is an abstract concept, which, on the contrary, speaks of a phenomenon that is difficult to visualize - "psychological degradation".

Judgment

Judgment is a thought that arises from the past experience of the individual or previously realized information. Judgment allows to demonstrate the connection between objects. For example: "A man who loves dogs is always distinguished by kindness." In this case, we are not talking about the truthfulness of the statement, but about the fact that this judgment arises from the former knowledge of the individual.

Inference

And, finally, inferences - the highest form of thinking, in which new judgments are synthesized with the help of judgments and concepts. According to the laws and forms of thinking, inferences are obtained when a person, using logic, operates with his knowledge and draws conclusions. Example: sanguine people are people of optimistic disposition; Vanya is a good-natured and positive boy, which means that Vanya is a sanguine person.

To form conclusions, the following methods are used:

• Induction - when from a particular, properties are translated into general;
• analogy - inference is formed on the similarity of the compared phenomena;
• Assumption - inference is the fruit of incomplete information and incomplete confidence in its truthfulness.