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 knowledge into concepts, uses these concepts to make judgments, and carries out inference according to certain logical relationships, thereby forming a relatively complete thought, which is then understood and grasped so as to achieve the purpose of cognition. The characteristic of logical thinking is that it takes analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction, generalization, and concretization as its basic processes of thought, thereby revealing the essential features of things and their law-governed connections; it is characterized by being standardized, rigorous, determinate, and repeatable.

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

The methods of logical thinking mainly 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 error-free; otherwise, a correct conclusion cannot be drawn. 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 inference: the logical characteristic of deductive inference is that if the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true—it is a necessary inference; the logical characteristic of non-deductive inference is that although the premises are true, they cannot guarantee that the conclusion is true—it is a probable inference.

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

Reposted from online materials