LOGICAL THINKING

that all mammals are animals; (b) that a horse is a mammal; (c) that, therefore, a horse is an animal. The result of this reasoning is the statement: "A horse is an animal." The most fundamental principle of reasoning, therefore, consists in comparing two mental concepts original: "objects of thought" by examining their relationship to a third concept.

It is clear that these four processes of reasoning The four processes mentioned are Abstraction, Generalization, Judgment, and Reasoning. require the use of the methods of Analysis and Synthesis, respectively. Analysis means separating a mental concept into its component parts, qualities, or relationships. Synthesis means combining the qualities, parts, or relationships of a mental concept into a unified original: "composite" whole.

These two processes are found in every stage of Reasoning. Abstraction is mainly analytical; Generalization (or Conception) is chiefly synthetic; Judgment can be either analytical, synthetic, or both; and Reasoning is "either a synthesis of specific details in Induction, or the derivation original: "evolution" of a specific detail from a general rule in Deduction."