Several Functional Roles of Consciousness

1. Logical Reasoning

2. Induction and Deduction

Induction is the derivation of universal rules from multiple individual things. For example: black horses and white horses can be generalized into "horse." Deduction is the opposite of induction; deduction derives individual rules from universal rules. For example: "horse" can be deduced into black horse, white horse, and so on.

2. Analysis and Synthesis

Analysis is the breaking down of a thing into its various parts, aspects, and attributes, which are then studied separately. It is a necessary stage in understanding a thing as a whole. Synthesis is the organic unification of the various parts, aspects, and attributes of a thing into a whole according to their intrinsic connections, in order to grasp the essence and laws of the thing. Analysis and synthesis mutually permeate and transform into each other: synthesis is carried out on the basis of analysis, and analysis is guided by synthesis. Analysis and synthesis, in continuous cycles, propel the deepening and development of knowledge.

For example, in the study of light, people analyzed the rectilinear propagation, reflection, and refraction of light, and concluded that light consists of particles. People then analyzed and studied the phenomena of interference and diffraction of light, along with other phenomena that the corpuscular theory could not explain, and concluded that light is a wave. When people measured the wavelengths of various kinds of light and proposed the electromagnetic theory of light, it seemed that light was simply a wave, an electromagnetic wave. However, the discovery of the photoelectric effect could not be explained by the wave theory, and so the photon theory was proposed. When people synthesized these aspects together, a new understanding emerged: light possesses wave-particle duality.

3. Abstraction and Generalization

Abstraction is the extraction of common, essential features from a multitude of things, while discarding their non-essential features. Specifically, scientific abstraction is the process by which people, on the basis of practice, process and refine abundant sensory materials through "discarding the dross and selecting the essential, eliminating the false and retaining the true, moving from one to the other, and going from the exterior to the interior," thereby forming conceptual forms of thought such as concepts, judgments, and inferences, in order to reflect the essence and laws of things.

Generalization is a thought process and method for forming concepts. That is, the essential attributes extracted in thought from certain things that share some common attributes are extended to all things possessing these attributes, thereby forming a universal concept about this class of things. Generalization is an important method of scientific discovery, because generalization elevates knowledge from a smaller scope to a larger scope; it extends knowledge from one domain to another domain.

4. The Comparative Thinking Method: By object, comparison is divided into comparison between things of the same kind and comparison between things of different kinds. By form, comparison is divided into comparison seeking similarities and comparison seeking differences—seeking differences within similarities, and seeking similarities or commonalities within differences.

5. The Cause-and-Effect Thinking Method: Simply put, the logic of causality is: because of A, therefore B; or, if phenomenon A appears, phenomenon B will necessarily appear (a sufficient relationship). This is a relationship of causing and being caused, with cause A preceding and effect B following.

6. The Sequential Inference Method: Sequential inference is step-by-step reasoning according to cause-and-effect relationships, hierarchical relationships, and so on. When a certain cause produces a result, and that result in turn serves as a cause producing the next result, it becomes a causal chain. The causal chain is a form of sequential inference—for example, the twelve links of dependent origination.

7. The Reverse Thinking Method: The reverse thinking method is the opposite of the cause-and-effect thinking method; it infers causes from results—for example, tracing the twelve links of dependent origination in reverse.

Reposted from online sources