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CHAPTER XVII.

THOUGHT-KNOWING -GENERAL VIEW.

Reason crowns Cognition.-At the base of the psychological pyramid you find perceptive knowing. All cognition is founded on the rock of immediate knowledge. Representative knowing builds on perceptive knowing. Without representation there could be no comparison, and thought would be impossible. Crowning the pyramid of the intellectual faculties and their products, you find reason. Here, presented in one view, and, as far as possible, in the order of their dependence, are the nine cognitive powers:

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The Nine Intellectual Faculties.-The soul is the conscious seif that knows, feels, and wills. The capabilities of the soul to exert acts of knowing different in kind are termed the intellectual faculties. A faculty is not an organ or an entity; nor is a faculty a myth. This bar of magnetic iron has not organs, but bound up in it are energies called magnetism, gravity, cohesion. The soul is an entity endowed with capabilities to know, to feel, and to will. A faculty is a soul-energy to do acts distinguishable in kind from other acts. You reproduce and recognize a past experience; the act is distinguishable in kind from all other kinds of mental acts; memory is a faculty; the soul is endowed with a reproductive energy.

1. The intellectual faculties are the powers of the soul to perform different kinds of acts of knowing. Discrimination and assimilation are processes involved in some degree in all knowing; but these are not faculties. Like the physical forces, faculties are distinct energies. A compound element is not a greater absurdity than a compound faculty. We have as many intellectual powers as we have distinct knowing energies, and no more.

2. Groups of intellectual faculties. The number three is not a sacred number in science, save so far as truth is sacred. Classification is scientific when it accords with reality. "How do we gain knowledge? How do we keep it? What can we do with it ?” These questions indicate the natural grouping of the cognitive powers. Each group answers to one of these questions. Perception includes our three intuitive powers; representation includes our three representative powers; and elaboration includes our three thoughtpowers. This classification is considered true to reality, and is certainly exhaustive. No better classification seems possible for psychological, educational, or literary purposes.

3. A uniform nomenclature needed. Much of the confusion in the realms of mental science arises from an imperfect and ambiguous nomenclature. But psychologists and educators are rapidly approaching uniformity. The pyramid represents the substantial agreement of our latest and best authors.

Thinking is discerning Relations.-Thought-knowledge is a knowledge of relations. All knowing is immediate, representative, or mediate. Because we discern the unknown through the known, thought-knowing is

called mediate knowing. Because we think crude percepts into polished concepts and judgments and reasons, we call thought-knowing elaborative knowing. Why is thought-knowing called reflective knowing? comparative knowing? logical knowing?

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Our thinking faculties are our soul-energies to discern relations. "The faculties of elaboration are variously denominated thus: The elaborative or discursive faculties, since they are employed in working up into higher forms the materials supplied by acquisition and reproduction; the logical faculties, since they are the faculties employed in logical processes; the comparative faculties, since comparison enters as an essential element into all their processes; the faculties of relations, since they deal with relations; the thought faculties, since their acts are styled thought; the rational faculties, understanding, or intelligence, since they are the faculties which characterize man as rational, and thus distinguish him from inferior beings."* The Thinking Powers.

Names.

The Comparative Powers.
The Elaborative Faculties.
The Reflective Faculties.
The Logical Faculties.

The Rational Faculties.

The Understanding (indefinite).

Understanding is used in various senses, and hence is objectionable. The other names are expressive and definite, and may be used interchangeably.

Thinking is based on Comparison.-Thinking is discerning relations between things. We perceive things and discern relations. The things perceived and the

* Schuyler.

relations discerned are objective realities, but concepts, judgments, and reasons are products of the mind.

1. Conception is the power to think things into classes. When we compare objects, we discern resemblances and form groups of resembling things. We gain general notions.

2. Judgment is the power to think notions into propositions. When we compare two notions we discern and predicate agreement or disagreement. We gain truths.

3. Reason is the power to think propositions into arguments. When we compare propositions, we discern conclusions or causal relations. Through interlocked judgments self, as reason, discerns causal relations, and thus builds science. We gain conclusions.

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"We distinguish Three Stages of Thinking. First of all, there is the formation of general notions or concepts. This is an act of conception. Next to this comes the combining of two concepts in the form of a statement or proposition, as when we say, 'Material bodies have weight.' This is an act of judgment. Lastly, we have the operation by which the mind passes from certain judgments to certain other judgments, as when from the assertions, 'Material substances have weight,'' Gases are material substances,' we proceed to the further assertion, 'Gases have weight.' This is an act of reason. These distinctions have been fixed by logicians, and not by psychologists. Nevertheless, since they roughly mark off the more simple and the more complex modes of thinking and products of thought, it is convenient to the psychologist to adopt the distinctions." *

Self, as Conception, thinks Many Individuals into One Class.-The product is called a general notion because * Sully.

it is general to each individual of the class. Why are concepts called class-notions and group-notions? An idea may be a percept or a concept. Notion has been and is still used as synonymous with idea, but the tendency now is to use notion in the sense of concept.

Products of Conception

Concepts.

General Notions.
Class-Notions.

Group-Notions.
Notions.

"To classify is no secret of science, no process reserved for the select few who are initiated into a magic art, but it is as universal and necessary as the act of thinking. The classifications of common life may be as rational and as useful for the ends of common life as are those of science for its special objects.” *

"In our observation of the relation of resemblance, as of every other, we proceed through our knowledge, previous or present, of objects. From the knowledge we have of things we discern points in which they are alike. This enables us to put them into a class, to which we may attach a name. That class must include all the objects possessing the common attributes fixed on. The faculty to discern relations of resemblance is our power to manufacture our general notions or concepts." +

Self, as Judgment, discerns Truth-Relations.-The product of judging is called a judgment, because it is a decision of the mind. As it sets forth the agreement or disagreement of notions, it is called a proposition. We discern the agreement or disagreement of ideaswe judge. We express the agreement or disagreement -we form judgments. A proposition or sentence asserts the agreement or disagreement of notions. When the assertion corresponds with reality, the judgment is true. All judgments are either true or false.

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