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INSTRUMENTS
OF THINKING
Thinking calls for the assistance of percepts, images, concepts,
signs and formulate, of which it make abundant use. These are
the essential instruments of thinking:
(1)PERCEPTS- Percepts are important factors in thinking,
affording material to it. They also stimulate thinking. Suppose
we have seen our friend-doing something. The perception well set
us thinking in order to discover ways and means of preventing
our friend from this bad act.
Many other percepts will assist in this thinking. We will, with
the help of memory, try to recall the perceptions of the past
behaviour of our friend in order to see the cause which may have
set him on his wrong path of life, in the hope of discovering
ways and means which may be acted to cure him.
(2) IMAGES - Image
too, is a kind of symbol which includes the faint recollection
of perceptions. Past experiences of an individual move around in
his mind in the form of images. Images may be recalled through a
conscious effort but they also flash on the mind involuntarily.
Many experiments have indicated that images are not quite as
essential to thinking as they were previously considered to be,
The use of images in thinking depend in no small measure upon
the method of thinking, which the individual employs some people
use other symbols in they thinking instead of images. It is not
essential that a singer must have auditory images in order to be
good. Thinking in philosophy and political science makes better
use of words than images. Similarly subjects like arithmetic
make every infrequent use of images. Some times a person
experiences difficulty in making the other person comprehend his
thought just because they differ in their ways of thinking.
(3)CONCEPTS -Concepts are the abstract forms of past
experiences. Humanity is the trait of the human species, found
equally in all human beings. Concept is a general idea and, as
the example makes clear, it is founded upon perception. The
concept of humanity cannot be formed without the perception of
human being, because humanity is the common element in the
perception of human beings. An abstraction of humanity from
human being is necessary in order to proceed from perception to
concept. Concept, formed with the help of abstraction is mental.
Reasoning cannot be done without concepts, which are both
abstract and general.
These are the indispensable elements of thinking. Classification
of objects is done on the basis of concepts, while it
differentiates between individuals of the same class. Conceptual
thinking takes less time because it facilitates the thinking of
innumerable things by a few concepts. Thus one concept is the
symbol of many objects. But all concepts are not equally
extensive. For example, creature is more comprehensive than
human beings which in its turn, is more comprehensive than
Indians. Indians are included in human beings who are included
in creatures.
(4) SYMBOLS - Concepts are made use of in thinking mainly with
the help of symbols, which are the representatives of general
thoughts. Whenever our thoughts turn to human beings,the human
figure, which occupies our mind is a general figure, not that of
any specific person. The image of a dog is a symbol of dogs in
general. One or its numerical equivalents are symbols of a
whistle may be the symbols of unity while two or 2 symbolises
dualism. The
sound of a whistle may be the symbol of a policeman or a
watchman. The noise of the fire engine is the symbol of fire.
Thus the use of symbols in thinking saves time and energy.
Terms and their classification
According to Aristotle, all propositions affirm or deny
something. That about which an affirmation or denial is made is
the subject term and that which an asserted of the subject is
predicated term. The subject and the predicate are connected
with each other by a copula, which always is some part of the
verb "to be". Let us now consider each element:
(1) Subject - Consider the proposition "Man is moral". Here
mortality is being affirmed about man and, therefore man is the
subject of his proposition. The subject may be one word or many.
In the above example to has one word only; but in the
proposition 'Alexander" the I great, was pupil of Aristotle',
the subject is made of three words.
(2) Predicate - In the proposition 'Man is mortal',
mortality is asserted about man and man is the subject
therefore, mortal is the predicate Again, the predicate term may
consist of single word, as in the above example, or it may have
many words. In our second example "pupil of Aristotle" is the
predicate an it consists of three words.
(3)Copula - The verb "is" and its conjugated serve as
connect in words between subject and predicate, and this
connecting word is called copula of the proposition. The word
copula is derived from the copule, which means to join.
Words
and Terms
All
terms are words but every word cannot become a term in a
proposition, From the viewpoint of logic, the words are divided
into three categories, namely, Categorematic, Syncategorematic
and Acategorematic. -"The categorematic words are those which by
themselves can become the terms of a proposition.
1. The example of categorematic words are Ram, Peter,
intelligent etc.
2. The syncategorematic words cannot by themselves terms but
they become terms in conjuction with other words. For instance
'and' alone cannot be a
term but in "Ram and Peter are friends", 'and' has become a
term.
3. The acategorematic words like Ah and'bh can never be terms.
(1)Simple or Composite terms " The simple terms consist of a
single word only whereas the composite terms consist of two or
more words, 'man', 'boy' 'hence' 'intellectuals' etc. are
illustrations of single terms, and 'an honest man', 'a swift
horse', 'a good boy' etc. are illustrations of composite terms.
(2) Singular or General Terms - A term which denotes or stands
for a single individual or object is^ singular term whereas a
term denoting a class is a general term. For example 'Mount
Everest' 'Ram' 'Delhi' etc are cases of the former 'Philosopher'
Book 'mountain' etc.are examples of the latter. Singular terms
have been divided into two categories:
(a) Significant Singular Terms - Such a term not only stands for
a single thing but mentions a trait peculiar to it not be found
to in any other thing. For example, 'Higher pack of the world'.
'longest river', 'best cricketer of century' each stand for one
thing only and its peculair trait is unique to it.
(b) Proper names - These are known as non-significant singular
terms also. Ram, Calcutta, London, Alfread Kinsey etc. Stand for
any thing but do not name traits peculiar to them.
(3) Collective or Non collective Terms - 'Arm/, 'liberty',
'Crowd' 'audience', 'club' etc, are terms which refer to
collection of things. Army refers to a large collection of
soldiers and officers, audience refers to a group of persons
gathered to listen to something, club refers to group having
some common purpose. However a club member or a soldier are
obviously non collective terms.
(4) Concrete or Abstract Terms - The concrete terms are names of
things such as books, balls etc. Whereas abstract terms are
names of qualities. Sometime qualities and things are combined
together, for example in literary book, magic balls etc.
Abstract terms may be singular to general.
(5) Positive, Negative or Privative Terms - Positive terms
indicate the presence of a quality such as 'joy', sorrow", etc.
While negative terms indicate absence of quality, e.g.,
'unmanly, immoral' etc. privative terms are similar to negative
in so far as they indicate absence of a quality but this absence
of a quality is not natural. For example if we say man is blind,
the term blind shows that be lacks eye sight but also shows that
man ordinarily is not blind, therefore 'blind' indicate
privation or deprivation of some trait.
A term can be understood either by considering the class of
objects (a class may have one member) to which it applies by the
set of characteristics which uniquely determine.
For example, the term 'man' be understood by pointing out to
Ram, Shyam etc. who are men or may be understood to mean that
any one who is a rational animal is a man. The class of objects
to which a term applies is known as the denotation of the term
and the set of characteristics which determine it is known as
connotation of the term.
Denotation
Denotation of a term is also known by another name, that is
extension. As is clear from the word extension, denotation or
extension of a term refers to extent or limit covered by a term.
For instance the term 'man' applies to all members of mankind
but the term 'animal' applies to members of mankind and besides
also to members of animal kingdom. Therefore the term 'animal'
has wider extension or application that the term 'man', while
the term 'Scholar* has even less extension than man.
Connotation
It is also known as by another name intension. By connotation or
intension we mean the idea or characteristics which enable
anyone to apply a particular term to some object. For instance
we say that this is a book because by book we understand a
printed material covering some subject, and whatever answers to
this description is also called book; therefore the intension or
connotation of a term is equivalent to its description. However
not everybody has the same description or set properties in mind
with regard to a particular object. This is why we distinguish
between various meanings of the term intension, or connotation.
There are three such kinds:
1. Subjective Intension, 2. Objective Intension and 3.
Conventional Intension.
The term 'thief
may suggest to someone's minds a person who breaks into houses
at night while some other person may understand by it anyone who
steps else's propserty. Obviously various people will have
different ideas about the same thing depending upon their mental
and emotional framework. The meaning which is peculiar to
everybody is called subjective Intension of the term. Secondly,
by cof<notation or intension we may intend or mean the
properties belonging to a thing. This is known as Objective
Intension or Comprehension. Thirdly, by connotation we can mean
the essential properties of a thing which distinguish it from
other and this is Conventional intension. This is roughly
equivalent to definition of a term and ordinarily we have this
meaning in when we use the term connotation.
Relation between Denotation and Connotation
It is usually believed that inverse relationship holds
between connotation and denotation so that increase in one leads
to decrease in the other. This relation is known as inverse
relation between connotation and denotation. This relation
operates in the following four ways;
1. An increase in the denotation results in decrease in the
connotation. The term 'rational animal' applies to all men. but
the term 'animal' applies to men
as well as dogs, cats etc. and had, therefore wider denotation.
But as we see, its connotation is less than that of, 'rational
animal' because rational animal must have both rationality and
animality while animality alone is sufficient for the term
'animals'.
2. A decrease in denotation leads to increase in connotation but
as we know, scholar is a man who studies widely. Accordingly,
the term 'scholar' has
greater connotation-
3. An increase in connotation results in decrease in denotation
if we specify the kind of scholar and say a scholar of British
constitution the term will apply to fewer persons than the term
scholar, but obviously a British History scholar has more
connotation.
4. Connotation results in decrease in denotation-
The term British Citizen has less connotation than the term
citizen because the term citizen has the property of "being
resident of a country", whereas British citizen has another
property in addition to above, namely "being British".
Therefore, the connotation of former is more than that of the
latter, but, obviously the denotation of the latter is more.
The Rules Governing Inverse Relation Between Connotation and
Denotation
1. Change in Connotation or Denotation results in a New
Term-
Any change in a term either by specifying it further or by the
removing some specifying gives us a new term. For example, if we
add the quality of honesty and hard work to man, we get honest
hard working man, and this is a new term. Therefore, by changing
connotation of a man; we get a new term. Similarly, if we remove
'honest or 'hardworking' from honest hardworking man, we get
either honest man or hardworking man and this is a
new term.
2- The rule of inverse relation applies only if there is change
in the term- If we add to the term man 'biped', 'relation', etc.
There is no change, in the term.
because the term 'man', 'biped man', 'rational man' are same and
there is no change in the connotation or denotation of the term
man.
3. The inverse relation does not operate in mathematical
proportion-
The extent to which change in qualities of a term results may be
very small or very great, there is no question of proportion
here. For instance, if we add 'learned' to the term
'philosopher' the change in the extent of 'learned philosopher*
and "philosopher", is nominal, but if we add "first" to the
above term, the new term can apply only to a single philosopher.
4. Change in Connotation or Denotation may not increase our
knowledge- It is not necessary that if we learn some more
characteristics of a thing, our
knowledge increases. For example, by saying that a play field is
a hockey play .field, we do not know more.
WHAT IS SYLLOGISM?
Two type of inferences have been distinguished: the immediate
and the mediate. While the immediate inference is based on one
proposition only, the mediate has two propositions as its basis.
The mediate inference is also known as syllogism, the name is
due to Aristotle
A syllogism is defined as an arguement having three propostions,
which contain between them three and only three terms, The two
of these are premises and third is the conclusion. As a matter
of fact, syllogism is a relation of two terms to a third term
which helps discovery of some relation between the two. An
example would make this clear; kissing in public is tolerated in
permissive societies; USA is premissive society; therefore
kissing in public is permitted in USA. Here "kissing' and 'USA'
have some relation with 'permissive society* and in the
conclusion we find kissing and USA related because of this
common relation. Since it is through some common term that we
reach the conclusion, syllogism, therefore, is a mediate
inference.
ANALYSIS OF SYLLOGISM
A syllogism, as defined above, has^three propositions and
three terms only. Two of the propositions are premises (one
major and one minor) and the third one is the conclusion. Of
terms, the premise counting the major term is the major premise.
The premise containing minor term similarly is the minor
premise. The term which occurs in both the premises is middle
term. The determination of major and minor terms can easily be
done by looking at the conclusion, because the predicate of
conclusion is the major term and the subject of the conclusion,
minor. It is, therefore, not necessary that the premises
occurring first must be the major premise, for instance, "The
cinema is demoralising: and whatever is demortalising must be
shunned", therefore, cinema must be shunned". In this argument
minor premise comes first. In syllogism, like any deductive
argument minor premise comes first. In syllogism, like any
deductive argument, the conclusion must not exceed in extent to
the extent of premises, and the truth of the conclusion depends
upon both the premises being true.
KINDS OF SYLLOGISM
The syllogism are broadly of two types, pure and mixed. In
turn each has three sub-divisions;
Pure syllogism : Pure Categorical; Pure Hypothetical and Pure
Disjunctive syllogism.
Mixed syllogisms : Hypothetical Categorical; Disjunctive
Categorical and Dilemma
RULES OF
VALIDITY OF SYLLOGISM
Logicians have been able to discover certain rules necessary
for the validity of syllogism. These are as follows:
1. Three terms - A syllogism must have three and only three
terms no less no more. If there two terms only inference can be
immediate and not mediate. If there are four, the fallacy or
four terms occurs. An argument like Ram is my friend. Mohan is
Ram's friend, therefore Mohan is my friend, is invalid because
it has four terms, viz, Ram, Mohan my friend and Mohan's friend.
Secondly, there should be no ambiguous use of terms that is the
meaning of a term should not change within the argument
Violation of this rule leads to three kinds of fallacies;
(A) AMBIGUOUS MINOR
Vice is to be condemned,
Ram is working with vice.
Ram is to be condemned.
'Vice' in minor means a tool and not evil as in the major.
(B) AMBIGUOUS MIDDLE
Blue is a colour. -
Sky is blue.
Sky is a colour.
This is apparently false because white it is given that no
Indians are ungrateful, this does not guarantee that no
non-Indians are ungrateful, but the class of religious persons
includes Indians as well as non- Indians.
4. If both the premises are negative, no conclusion follows-In
case both premises are denials of certain attributes to subject
terms, no connexion is established between major and minor terms
through middle term. For example of one says A is not B and B is
not C, we can not know whether A is C or is not C, because if,
for example, Ram and Shyam are stupid . from this we cannot
infer anything other than what is already asserted in
propositions.
5. If one premise is negative, the conclusion is negative- In
case one premise is negative, the other will be affirmative
(this is entailed by Rule 5). Therefore the affirmative major
minor will include or will be included by the middle, and the
negative major or minor will exclude or be excluded by the
middle, hence, conclusion will be negative. For example, if A is
B and A is not C, the obvious conclusion is that A is not C.
6. From both affirmative premises, the conclusion will be
affirmative- This is too obvious to need any explanation.
7. Two particular premises yield no conclusion-Two particular
premises can either be II, 01 or 00. 00 is excluded by rule. 5,
since both are negative. II is excluded by the Rule 3, because I
proposition does not distribute either of its terms. In 10 or
01, the conclusion will be negative by Rule 6, and this negative
conclusion will distribute the predicate, which is the major
term. This will leave middle term undistributed.
8. If one of the premises is particular, the conclusion will
also distributed therefore no term can be distributed in
conclusion, because the number of distributed term had to be one
less, hence conclusion must be particular. And if particular
premise is negative, the conclusion will be negative. Now
negative universal conclusion will distribute both the terms,
and this will be equal to the number of distributed terms in the
premises, because one premise is negative, the other has to be
affirmative. Affirmative distributes one term only, and negative
particular also distributes one term only. Now if conclusion is
negative universal both major and minor terms must be
distributed and this will give rise to the fallacy of
undistributed middle,
9- If the major premise is particular and the minor negative no
conclusion follows-since the conclusion will be negative by Rule
5, and the predicate will be distributed major terms must terms
must be distributed, but this will not be so if the major
premise is I type.
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