Thought

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Thought

Thought and thinking are mental

Mind

Mind refers to the aspects of intellect and consciousness manifested as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, free will and imagination, including all of the brain's conscious and unconscious cognitive processes....
forms

Theory of Forms

Plato's Theory of Forms asserts that Forms , and not the material world of change Plato's allegory of the cave, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality....
and process

Process

Process may refer to:Biology*Process , a projection or outgrowth of tissue from a larger body* Biological processScience and technnology*Process , a computer program or an instance of a program running concurrently with other programs...
es, respectively ("thought" is both.) Thinking allows beings to model

Model (abstract)

In mathematical logic, the formal languages, formal systems, and theory which are studied have no meaningful content until they are given an interpretation within some other system....
the world and to deal with it according to their objectives

Goal

Goal may refer to:* An objective or desired outcome** Goal , a desired state of affairs of a person or of a system** Goal in systemics and cognition engineering, a state of the domain of activity of an intelligent entity which she/he/it try to achieve;...
, plans

PLANS

People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools is an organization based in California in the United States which campaigns against the public funding of Waldorf Schools methods charter schools alleging they violate the United States Constitution's separation of church and state....
, ends and desire

Desire

Desire may refer to:...
s. Words referring to similar concepts and processes include cognition

Cognition

Cognition is the science term for "the process of thought."Its usage varies in different ways in accord with different disciplines: For example, in psychology and cognitive science it refers to an information processing view of an individual's psychological Functionalism s....
, sentience

Sentience

Sentience is the ability to feel or perceive subjectivity. It is an important concept in philosophy, particularly in the philosophy of animal rights and in eastern philosophy, as well as in science fiction and the study of artificial intelligence, although in each of these fields the term is used slightly differently....
, consciousness

Consciousness

Consciousness is a difficult term to define, because the word is used and understood in a wide variety of ways, so that it frequently happens that what one person sees as a definition of consciousness is seen by others as about something else altogether....
, idea

Idea

An idea is a form formed by consciousness through the process of Ideation . Human capability to contemplate ideas is associated with the ability of reasoning, human self-reflection, and of the ability to acquire and apply intellect, intuition, inspiration, etc.....
, and imagination

Imagination

Imagination is the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses, and the action or process of forming such images or concepts....
.

Thinking involves the mental manipulation of information

Information

Information as a Conveyed concept has a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. Generally speaking, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control system, data, form, instruction, knowledge, Meaning , stimulation, pattern, perception, and knowledge representation....
, as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving

Problem solving

Problem solving forms part of thought. Considered the most complex of all intelligence functions, problem solving has been defined as higher-order cognitive process that requires the modulation and control of more routine or fundamental skills....
, reason

Reason

Reason may refer to Mind#Mental faculties that consciously create explanations in order to judge, decide, solve problems, generalize, and give examples, among other activities....
and make decision

Choice

Choice consists of the mental function of thinking involved with the process of judgment the merits of multiple wikt:options and wikt:selecting one of them for action....
s.

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Encyclopedia

Thought and thinking are mental

Mind

Theory of Forms

Plato's Theory of Forms asserts that Forms , and not the material world of change Plato's allegory of the cave, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality....
and process

Process

Model (abstract)

Goal

PLANS

Desire

Desire may refer to:...
s. Words referring to similar concepts and processes include cognition

Cognition

Sentience

Consciousness

Idea

Imagination

Information

Problem solving

Reason

Choice

Choice consists of the mental function of thinking involved with the process of judgment the merits of multiple wikt:options and wikt:selecting one of them for action....
s.

Thinking is a higher cognitive function and the analysis of thinking processes is part of cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that investigates internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language.The school of thought arising from this approach is known as cognitivism which is interested in how people mentally represent information processing....
.

Basic process

The basic mechanics of human brain cells reflect a process of pattern matching

Pattern matching

In computer science, pattern matching is the act of checking for the presence of the constituents of a given pattern. In contrast to pattern recognition, the pattern is rigidly specified....
or rather recognition

Pattern recognition

Pattern recognition is a sub-topic of machine learning. It is "the act of taking in raw data and taking an action based on the Category of the data"....
. In a "moment of reflection", new situations and new experience

Experience

Recall

Recall may refer to:*Product recall*Recall election*Letter of credence sent to return an ambassador from a country, either as a diplomatic protest or because the diplomat is being reassigned elsewhere and is being replaced by another envoy...
ed ones and judgements are made. In order to make these judgements, the intellect maintains present experience

Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
and sorts relevant past experience. It does this while keeping present and past experience distinct and separate. The intellect can mix, match, merge, sift, and sort concept

Concept

A concept is a cognition unit of meaning— an abstraction idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a "unit of knowledge," built from other units which act as a concept's characteristics....
s, perceptions, and experience. This process is called reasoning

Reasoning

Reasoning is the Cognition process of looking for reasons for beliefs, conclusions, actions or feelings. Although reasoning was once thought to be a uniquely human capability, other animals also engage in Animal_cognition#Reasoning_and_problem_solving....
. Logic

Logic

Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
is the science of reasoning

Reasoning

Ned Block

Ned Block is a Philosophy of mind who has made important contributions to matters of consciousness and cognitive science. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University under Hilary Putnam and was a professor of philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for many years, and now teaches at New York University ....
). Thinking is not merely a precess occuring in animals and humans. AI (Artificial Intelligence) focuses on machine thinking Igor Aleksander

Igor Aleksander

Igor Aleksander Royal Academy of Engineering is an emeritus professor of Neural Systems Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London....
, Pentti Haikonen.

Aids to thinking

Use of models
Model (abstract)

In mathematical logic, the formal languages, formal systems, and theory which are studied have no meaningful content until they are given an interpretation within some other system....
, symbol
Symbol

A symbol is something such as an entity, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention....
s, diagram
Diagram

A diagram is a 2D geometric model symbolic representation of information according to some visualization technique. Sometimes, the technique uses a Three-dimensional space visualization which is then graphical projection onto the 2D surface....
s and pictures.
Use of abstraction
Abstraction

Abstraction is the process or result of generalization by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically in order to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose....
to simplify the effort of thinking.
Use of metasyntactic variable
Metasyntactic variable

The phrase metasyntactic variable is a neologism that is used in some programmer communities to describe a placeholder name or an Aliasing term commonly used to denote the subject matter under discussion or an arbitrary member of a class of things under discussion....
s to simplify the effort of naming.
Use of iteration
Iteration

Iteration means the act of repeating....
and recursion
Recursion

Recursion, in mathematics and computer science, is a method of defining Function in which the function being defined is applied within its own definition....
to converge on a concept
Concept

A concept is a cognition unit of meaning— an abstraction idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a "unit of knowledge," built from other units which act as a concept's characteristics....
.
Limitation of attention
Attention

Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things. Examples include listening carefully to what someone is saying while ignoring other conversations in a room or listening to a cell phone conversation while driving a car....
to aid concentration
Concentration

In chemistry, concentration is the measure of how much of a given chemical substance there is mixed with another substance. This can apply to any sort of chemical mixture, but most frequently the concept is limited to homogeneous solutions, where it refers to the amount of solute in the solvent....
and focus on a concept. Use of peace and quiet to aid concentration.
Goal setting and goal revision. Simply letting the concept percolate in the subconscious, and waiting for the concept to re-surface.
Talking with like-minded people. Resorting to communication
Communication

Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs...",, 1: an act or instance of transmitting and 3 a: "a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or beha...
with others.
Working backward from the goal
Working backward from the goal

Working backward from the goal is an application of the backward chaining strategy in artificial intelligence. When problem solving, working backward is one way to reach the goal of solving a problem....
.
Desire for learning
Learning

Learning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, Value s, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information....
.

Pitfalls

Prejudice
Prejudice

The word prejudice refers to prejudgment: making a decision about before becoming aware of the relevant facts of a case or event. The word has commonly been used in certain restricted contexts, in the expression 'racial prejudice'....
can lead to flawed thinking
Self-delusion
Delusion

A delusion is commonly defined as a fixed false belief and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception....
s: inability to confront relevant issues (roadblock
Roadblock

A roadblock is a temporary installation set up to control or block traffic along a road. The reasons for one could be:*Roadworks*Temporary road closure during special events...
s).

External links

A site exploring J. Krishnamurti's views on the mind and thought.

Thought

Basic process

Aids to thinking

Pitfalls

See also

External links