CHAPTER II.

THE PROCESS OF REASONING

The processes of reasoning can be said to consist of four general stages or steps, as follows:

I. Abstraction: this refers to the process of drawing out original: "drawing off" and setting aside a quality or attribute from an object, person, or thing, and turning it into a distinct subject of thought. For instance, if I notice the quality of strength in a lion, and I am able to think of this quality abstractly and independently of the animal—if the term strength has an actual mental meaning to me, independent of the lion—then I have abstracted that quality. The act of thinking about it is an act of abstraction, and the thought-idea itself is an abstract idea. Some writers hold that these abstract ideas are realities and "not merely figments of the imagination original: "fancy"." As Brooks likely Edward Brooks (1831–1912), an American educator and author of influential texts on mental science and logic says: "The rose dies, but my idea of its color and fragrance remains." Other authorities regard abstraction as merely an act of concentration original: "attention" focused upon only the particu—