The Functional Roles of Consciousness

I. Logical Reasoning

II. Induction and Deduction

Induction is the process of deriving general rules from multiple individual things. For example: black horses, white horses can be generalized as horses. Deduction is the opposite of induction; it infers specific rules from universal rules. For example: horses can be deduced into black horses, white horses, etc.

II. Analysis and Synthesis

Analysis involves breaking down a thing into its constituent parts, aspects, and attributes for separate study. It is a necessary stage in understanding the whole entity. Synthesis involves organically unifying the various parts, aspects, and attributes of a thing into a whole according to their internal connections, in order to grasp the essence and laws of the thing. Analysis and synthesis permeate and transform into each other; synthesis is based on analysis, and analysis is guided by synthesis. Analysis and synthesis, cyclically repeated, drive the deepening and development of understanding.

For example, in the study of light, people analyzed the rectilinear propagation, reflection, and refraction of light, concluding that light consists of particles. People then analyzed phenomena like interference, diffraction, and others that the particle theory could not explain, concluding that light is a wave. When people measured the wavelengths of various types of light and proposed the electromagnetic theory of light, it seemed that light was simply a wave, an electromagnetic wave. However, the discovery of the photoelectric effect could not be explained by the wave theory, leading to the proposal of the photon theory. When these aspects were synthesized, a new understanding emerged: light possesses wave-particle duality.

III. Abstraction and Generalization

Abstraction is the extraction of common, essential characteristics from numerous things, while discarding non-essential characteristics. Specifically, scientific abstraction is the process, based on practice, of processing rich perceptual material by "discarding the dross and selecting the essential, eliminating the false and retaining the true, proceeding from the one to the other and from the outside to the inside," to form thought patterns such as concepts, judgments, and reasoning, thereby reflecting the essence and laws of things.

Generalization is a thought process and method for forming concepts. It involves extracting the essential attributes common to certain things possessing similar properties from thought, and extending them to all things possessing these attributes, thereby forming a universal concept about this category of things. Generalization is an important method for scientific discovery because it elevates understanding from a smaller scope to a larger scope; it extends understanding from one domain to another.

IV. Comparative Thinking Method

According to the objects of comparison, it is divided into comparison between things of the same kind and comparison between things of different kinds. According to the form, comparison is divided into comparison seeking commonality and comparison seeking difference: seeking differences within similarities, and seeking commonalities or similarities within differences.

V. Causal Thinking Method

Simply put, the logic of causality is: because A, therefore B, or if phenomenon A appears, phenomenon B will necessarily appear (a relationship of sufficiency). This is a relationship of causing and being caused, where cause A precedes effect B.

VI. Recursive Method

Recursion is reasoning step by step according to causal relationships or hierarchical relationships. Sometimes, after a cause produces a result, this result then acts as a cause to produce the next result, thus forming a causal chain. A causal chain is a form of recursive thinking, such as the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination.

VII. Reverse Thinking Method

The reverse thinking method is the opposite of the causal thinking method; it reasons from the result back to the cause. For example, the reverse deduction of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination.

Reprinted from online sources.