Formal-logical Components in the Content of Students’ Scientific Thinking

Abstract

The analysis conducted indicates various attempts to classify thinking as a mental phenomenon. At the same time, there are a number of approaches to defining scientific thinking and isolating its structural components. Not types or species, but namely structural components of scientific thinking, since with the scientific method of cognition and transformation of reality, all of them work to a greater or lesser extent for the final result.

At the same time, in this article it does not seem possible to even briefly dwell on all the structural components of scientific thinking. As a result, we have to make a choice on logical thinking. And this is due to the fact that logical thinking occupies a leading place in the structure of scientific thinking. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, in the educational process, logical thinking is considered as a trivial construct, supposedly well known to teachers structurally and methodologically. But in reality this is far from the case.

First of all, in logical thinking it is customary to distinguish between deductive, inductive and analogous inferences. And if teachers in the educational process emphasize the first (but in a limited representation!), then the second and third are practically not touched upon. As a result, there is a need to consider all types of deductive (we forget about the logical force of some of them or use them intuitively, which is not to the benefit of the educational process), inductive and analogous inferences. At the same time, this article will only discuss deductive inferences.

Certain concepts and judgments are used in all inferences. The concept reflects the objective nature of thinking. For example, the reflection in thinking of a change in the position of a body relative to other bodies concerns mechanical motion. A judgment is a form of thinking that consists in asserting or denying something about real objects, phenomena or processes by combining concepts. For example, when heated, bodies expand. As we can see, this judgment combines the concepts of body, heating, expansion. Judgments can be true and false. The given judgment is true, since it correctly reflects the relationship between concepts. At the same time, the judgment “when heated, bodies reduce their volume” is false, since it distorts objective reality. As a result, when working with students, it is worth emphasizing that the path to formulating true judgments lies through repeated observations and their empirical verification.

In a judgment, a subject (S) and a predicate (P) are distinguished. The subject and the predicate are called the terms of the judgment. In addition to the two terms, the judgment contains a connection. In general, any judgment can be formulated “S is P” or “S is not P”. One approach is to divide judgments into: generally affirmative, generally negative, partially affirmative and partially negative. Generally affirmative judgments are denoted by the letter A and are expressed by the formula: “All S are P” (all metals are conductors of electric current). General negatives are denoted by the letter E and are expressed by the formula: “No S is P” (no dielectric is a conductor of electric current). Partially affirmatives are denoted by the letter I and are expressed by the formula: “Some S are P” (some salts dissolve in water). Partially negatives are denoted by the letter O and are expressed by the formula “Some S are not P” (some metals do not retain memory of form).