Thinking form, thinking form structure, thinking method

Form of thinking refers to the forms that people use to reflect reality in the process of thinking, namely concept, judgment, reasoning, etc. In addition, it refers to the contact mode among the thinking elements shared by each different type of judgment and reasoning itself, so it is also called "the contact mode of thinking" or "the formal structure of thinking".

For example: "If p then q" is the form of hypothetical judgment, "all M is P, all S is M, therefore all S is P" is the form of syllogism. It is in this latter sense that the term "form of thought" is usually used.

In this sense, the form of thought is the form of logic. In people's concrete thinking activities, the form of thinking and the content of thinking are closely related, but different content of thinking can have a common form of thinking, so compared with the content of thinking, the form of thinking has a relative independence. It is the task of logic that one can set aside the different contents of specific thoughts and study only the forms of thought which they have in common.

Logical form is also called "formal structure of thinking". The common structure of each proposition and inference, which differ in its content of thought -- the most general mode of relation between its constituent elements. It mainly refers to the propositional form composed of logical constants and variables and various reasoning forms composed of various propositional forms.

For example: "All matter is divisible", "all just causes are victorious", "all metals are malleable", although the specific contents of these propositions are different, they all have a common structure, that is, a common connection between their components (concepts).

Expressed in formula is "all S is P", and this is the logical form common to the above propositions. Any logical form consists of logical constants and variables. In "All S is P"," everything "and" is "are logical constants, and" S "and" P" are variable terms. "Logical form... Not an empty shell, but a reflection of the objective world. It is the form in which people reflect the most general characteristics of reality in their thinking (such as any object has this or that attribute, any object has a certain relationship with each other, etc.).

Various forms of logic are formed in the course of the historical practice of human society and have the nature of mankind. The use of this or that form of logic in the thinking process is determined by the content reflected in the thinking. In traditional formal logic or ordinary logic, logical form is expressed by the formula composed of logical constants expressed in a certain natural language and variable terms expressed in a certain symbolic language. In mathematical logic, the logical form is expressed by the structure of logical calculus which appears as a special logical language or formal language, and the formula of certain logical calculus is adapted to the expression of certain natural language.

Any of various ways of replicating and reproducing an object or phenomenon of study in the course of thought. Such as comparative method, analysis, synthesis method, abstract, summary method and so on. There are scientific and correct ways of thinking, and there are unscientific and wrong ways of thinking. The correct scientific method of thinking is based on facts and materials, following logical laws and rules to form concepts, make judgments and reason. In this regard, the method of thinking is also the logical method.

There are dialectical, non-dialectical and metaphysical ways of thinking. Dialectical logic studies and uses the method of dialectical thinking; The methods studied and applied by formal logic are non-dialectical but scientific thinking methods. As far as the classical form formed in the 17th and 18th centuries is concerned, metaphysical thinking method has played a certain role in promoting the development of science in history. However, since the end of 18th century and the beginning of 19th century, metaphysical thinking method has become an outdated thinking method that hinders the development of science and is opposed to the dialectical thinking method.

The correct and scientific method of thinking is not an arbitrary procedure formulated by the subject for its own purposes, but the application of scientific categories and laws. The correctness of the method of thinking depends on the truth of its content, that is, on the degree to which it conforms to the regularity of the object or phenomenon it reflects, which makes the scientific method of thinking an effective method in science. If we exaggerate the subjective aspects of thinking methods (as tools and means) and make them absolute, it will make thinking methods become purely subjective procedures that have nothing to do with the objective world, and it is impossible to correctly understand objects or phenomena in practice by using such thinking methods.

The development of modern science and philosophy shows that the dialectical method of thinking, which is consciously applied in the process of thinking as materialist dialectics, is the only method that can correctly reproduce and reproduce the dialectical development and regularity of the object or phenomenon being studied in thinking, and the only method of thinking that is suitable for the development of natural science and social science at the present stage. That is, the thinking method suitable for the modern scientific level.