You probably feel reasonably confident that you know what the word 'thought' means, and that you can use it correctly. However on closer inspection it turns out to be a slippery concept which is difficult to pin down. We will consider different types of thought and a model of the neurological basis for thought processes.
The close relationship of thought to language will be discussed, particularly whether it is language that dominates thought or thought that dominates language.
We will then find out why we use concepts and see how they are related to properties. We will look at the difference between well-defined and poorly defined concepts.
Finally, we will consider reasoning. In the classical philosophical sense there are two broad forms of reasoning: deductive and inductive. We will look at both of these and evaluate their relation to how people actually think, before exploring some of the common human errors in reasoning.
