Logics. How to develop logical thinking

Logical thinking allows us to solve problems in the mind and draw conclusions about the phenomena. Person does not even think about how much logic is a valuable acquisition during the development of intelligence. What is logic? Logic is the science of the correctness of judgments, which includes the rules of adherence to the sequence of real facts, proof, the presence or search for arguments.

Logic gives the ability to confirm and prove their theories, correctly respond to opponents in a dispute. At the initial stage of development at school, the ability to think logically is equated with the ability to solve math problems. It is from mathematical operations that a child learns to abstract from concrete material and to connect abstractions among themselves. Logic, figuratively speaking, clears the concrete meaning from the information and brings the thought to the elementary formula.

What is logic?

The action of logical transformations in the mind stands out as a type of thinking. In this case, logic is a process in time, the way the mind builds connections between real objects. Such connections are more stable and substantive than those that are formed in the framework of simple perception. Connections are made not only between individual phenomena of reality, but also between words and whole sentences, which represent a graphic image of thought.

In addition, logic is involved in the creation of abstract concepts.

A concept is an abstract entity; it unites several objects (or objects of reality) at once. A generalized feature, which manifests itself in varying degrees in all these objects, becomes the content of the concept.

For example, the term "living organism" may include plants and animals, which are united by the presence of organic nitrogenous compounds (nucleic acids). Further, the concept of "plant" includes any plant (rose, fern, tree). Then this chain can be decomposed into specific representatives of the genus - “flowering”, “algae”, “mosses”. Thus, low-level concepts are raised as a result of generalization to the higher ones. For example, to the concept of "life" in general, based on the concepts of "recreating oneself" and "energy exchange".

Such a multi-level hierarchy of concepts forms a system of ordered knowledge, any phenomenon is in its place, like books in a library. Unlike a word, it has no clear boundaries of meaning. It is impossible to explain with one word. But it helps to master the information and what is being said better, it eliminates ambiguity in the exchange of facts and it is inherent only to a living subject. Concepts are formed within a specific system. For example, within the framework of the science of sociology there are concepts: “family”, “city”, “society” and so on.

Obtaining abstract units and their linking with each other begins with two main logical operations - analysis and synthesis. Analysis is the decomposition of a reality, object or information into elementary units. In the process it is determined what the object consists of, what lies in its essence, how the parts of the whole relate to each other.

Synthesis is the union of various elements. For example, combining two objects into one concept, or combining parts of objects to obtain a new abstraction or model of reality. A good example of demonstrating the concept of "synthesis" can be the unification of all sensory signals of the body in one sense, into a component of consciousness. However, logic, as the ability of reason, is engaged in combining ready-made meanings into judgments, and judgments into inference. Although by nature the brain (mind) seeks to unite everything into a complete picture of consciousness and only logic helps to achieve the correctness of its perception.

Logic is engaged in the search for true knowledge, the identification of correct ideas about reality with the state of affairs in the world.

Logic in the language system

The language represents the main sign system and tool with which you can see and feel the reflection of logical connections.

A sign is a dual entity that consists of a form (sound, graphic) perceived by means of the senses and its meaning or content. These two sides of the sign have an associative, conditional correspondence formed in the process of communication between people and their cultural development. A sign can be one word, a phrase, a complete sentence, and even a whole text.

Each sign has its own designate, that is what this sign means.

Designate is the real thing - a specific person, essence, subject, his interpretation and concept. The relationship between the sign and designate is called meaning — which property or characteristic of an object is meant by its phonetic envelope. A specific subject acquires practical significance in a given situation. For example, the word "fire" means both "heat", and "light", and "fire." The concept of “heat” has in its content both “heat” from fire, and “heat” from the human body and the metaphorical meaning “warmth” of the soul. Each meaning is included in the content of the concepts of each of them.

Two or more characters in the same situation (context) form syntactic links that allow you to implement one of the meanings of the sign at a more specific level (lexical) and get a detailed idea of ​​the world. Another type of connection between the sign and the designate in relation to the subject is pragmatic, which relates to the specific situation and how the speaker understands it.

With the help of the language, it is possible to construct any sentences (in logic - judgments), even those that will not make sense in the real world. Language in this regard does not care about the correctness of ideas and thoughts.

For example, the sentence “green thoughts sleep violently” may be meaningless from the point of view of logic, however, it complies with all the rules of the grammar of a language and is recognized on the basis of elementary meanings. Also in the language there are constructed interrogative, exclamatory sentences that go beyond the limits of formal logic and mean various human emotions. They are neither true nor false, so they are of no value to logic.

Some linguistic theories suggest that any, even the most absurd sentence, can get its meaning through imagination. For example, there is a theory about parallel worlds: conceptually, it means that you should not reject a meaningless assumption, but try to imagine the world in which it will have a real meaning.

Logic, unlike the language system, deals with affirmative sentences that relate to real facts. Such sentences are called true judgments.

Stages of development of logical thinking in humans

Logical thinking is classified according to stages of development, and is also divided into types depending on the predominance of one or another element of consciousness:

1. The formation of logic begins with visual-effective thinking. At an early stage, young children lack a stable logical connection. In this case, the thinking process is based on the real situation - the construction of words from cubes, figures from the constructor.

2. The second stage of the development of logical thinking - visual-figurative, it is developed in the preschool period. At this stage there is a separation of specific images from the real object. The child operates not with real objects, but with images of these objects called from memory. At this stage there is still no analysis, the image of the subject is not dismembered into its components.

3. The next stage of development of logic occurs in the primary school period. At this stage of development, all practical actions are transformed into an internal process of thinking. A school-age child successfully catches elementary connections, similarities and differences of objects. Thinking reaches an abstract level, there is the ability to ignore the specific properties of objects and combine them into categories, classes.

How to develop logical thinking skills and reasoning?

Intellectual games contribute to the development of logical thinking.

1. Chess, poker and so on are among the best training methods for the mind.

2. Using similar words, inventing rhymes can be an exercise in the development of logical thinking. Popular English game - Limerick - inventing absurd rhymes. Also inventing a parody rhyme to a popular verse or song. Excellent parodies are the poems from the book by Carroll "Alice through the looking glass."

3. Another exercise in the development of logic can be a retelling or paraphrasing of a sentence and text. Try to highlight the deep, abstract meaning and label it, in other words. Try to explain the same meaning with one word or with several words.

4. The analogy game. Take any object - structure, try to see its essence (meaning). Try to present this object or meaning in another system. For example, take the characters of your friends and try to present them as chemical elements: “gold” is rich, “lead” is lazy, “arsenic” is snide, harmful and so on.

5. For the development of logic, solving crossword puzzles and appropriate computer games, including online simulators, will be suitable.

6. The development of intellectual abilities is affected by the training of combining any words into classes, or a detailed object specification. For example, take a few words: “fish”, “square”, “circle”, “weather” and examine them in detail what elements they consist of and which they can be connected with. "Square" is "straight", "angle", "parallel straight lines", "plane". "Weather" - "atmosphere". Use a matrix of relationships (word relationships): cause and effect, part-whole, species-genus, sequence, opposite.

7. Study the explanatory dictionaries, invent your own interpretations of the phenomena.

8. To improve verbal-logical thinking, psychologists recommend having diaries. Refine your thoughts with their help. When reading any information (articles, books) try to outline all new knowledge.

9. Reading philosophical treatises and scientific books will also improve the logic and structure your thoughts.

Again, we note that only regular exercises and regular training in this direction will bring the expected result.