3. Reasoning

A thought is the mental representation of a set of ideas specific to an individual or a group of individuals, from which may arise a "judgment", the verbalization (oral or written) of which in a certain language is called an "opinion". Critical thinking is the analysis of facts, evidence, observations and arguments to form a judgment. Abstract thinking refers to the ability of the mind to create and use concepts in reasoning.

Aristotle was the first philosopher to distinguish three great families of human thought: apprehensions, judgments and reasonings, to which correspond, respectively, in discourse or writing, the three great families of notions: terms, propositions and arguments. An apprehension is an abstraction that enables us to reach the essence of things by identifying an object with a term. A judgement is made up of two ideas united by the assertion of...