What Is Logical Thinking?

Logical thinking is a rational activity of the human brain, in which the thinking subject abstracts the informational materials about things obtained at the stage of perceptual cognition into concepts, uses these concepts to make judgments, and carries out reasoning according to certain logical relationships, thereby forming a relatively complete thought, which is then understood and grasped, achieving the purpose of cognition. The characteristics of logical thinking are that analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction, generalization, and concretization serve as the basic processes of thinking, thereby revealing the essential features and regular connections of things; it is characterized by being standardized, rigorous, definite, and repeatable.

Logical thinking is a rational cognitive process in which a person, in the course of cognizing things, actively reflects objective reality by means of such forms of thinking as concepts, judgments, and reasoning; it is also called abstract thinking, or "thinking with closed eyes." In logical thinking, one must use forms of thinking such as concepts, judgments, and reasoning, as well as methods of thinking such as comparison, analysis, synthesis, abstraction, and generalization, and the degree to which one has mastered and applied these forms and methods of thinking is precisely one's capacity for logical thinking.

The main methods of logical thinking include induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, and ascending from the concrete to the abstract. Logical thinking is analytical and step-by-step. When engaging in logical thinking, every step must be accurate and free of error; otherwise, a correct conclusion cannot be reached. Characteristics: 1. Characteristics of concepts: intension and extension. 2. Characteristics of judgments: first, a judgment must make some assertion about a thing; second, a judgment always has a truth value. 3. Characteristics of reasoning: the logical characteristic of deductive reasoning is that if the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true—it is necessary reasoning; the logical characteristic of non-deductive reasoning is that although the premises are true, they cannot guarantee that the conclusion is true—it is probable reasoning.

Logical thinking generally has two types: the experiential type and the theoretical type. The former forms concepts, makes judgments, and carries out reasoning on the basis of practical activity, taking actual experience as its foundation—for example, workers and farmers using production experience to solve problems in production mostly belong to this type. The latter takes theory as its foundation, using scientific concepts, principles, laws, formulas, and the like to make judgments and carry out reasoning. The thinking of scientists and theoretical workers mostly belongs to this type.

Reposted from online materials