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The task of discussing the thinking habit and its various modes of expression as phases of the personality is obviously a difficult undertaking, because one is dealing with an old function having its origin in biological obscurity, one which is a principal instrument in daily adaptation, and one which is becoming increasingly complex in its functional aspects.
Professor Jastrow has tackled this problem with his characteristic enthusiasm and usual charm in written expression.
Thinking begins with “natural curiosity” which is shared alike by men and animals. In both the fundamental patterns are the same, but the vast difiference between these consists in the appreciation of these patterns. In man the greatest incentive to thinking is his desire to control natural forces and to make the environment to his liking, and this constitutes a very vital part of mental behavior. The term “thinking” includes the entire procedure and technic of arriving at a conclusion, and is supported by observation, perception, memory, imagination, and association. It constitutes a vital movement of mental behavior, and acts according to certain patterns.
The great patterns of thinking are understood as (1) explaining, (2) generalizing, and (3) applying, or hypothesis, induction and deduction respectively, and in order to be an efficient thinker one must be skilled or good in these three parts of the process. “The patterns supply a formula on paper for something real in fact.” Science has progressed by a procession of corrections of thought, by means of thinking. Edison once said that nothing is impossible. When it seems so, it means only that we do not yet know how to do it, and Jastrow remarks, “Nature is orderly; order is heaven's first law. Things do not happen haphazardly, but uniformly, according to principles—if only the mind of man can discover them. The principle binds the mass of observations together and makes the order of nature intelligible. It explains on a large scale.” If thes