Judgments.
We have seen the several steps of the mental process whereby simple
sensations are transformed into percepts and then into concepts or
general ideas. The formation of the concept is considered as the first
great step in thinking. The second great step in thinking is that of the
formation of the "judgment." The definition of "judgment," as the term
is used in logic; is "the comparing together in the mind of two ideas of
things, and determining whether they agree or disagree with each other,
or that one of them does or does not belong to the other. Judgment is,
therefore, (_a_) affirmative or (_b_) negative, as (_a_) 'Snow is
white,' or (_b_) 'All white men are not Europeans.'"
What in logic is called a "proposition" is the expression in words of a
logical judgment. Hyslop defined the term "proposition" as follows: "Any
affirmation or denial of an agreement between two conceptions." For
instance, we compare the concepts "sparrow" and "bird" and find that
there is an agreement, and that the former belongs to the latter; this
mental process is a _judgment_. We then announce the judgment in the
_proposition_: "The sparrow is a bird." In the same way we compare the
concepts "bat" and "bird," find that there is a disagreement, and form
the judgment that neither belongs to the other, which we express in the
proposition: "The bat is not a bird." Or we may form the judgment that
"sweetness" is a quality of "sugar," which we express in the
proposition: "Sugar is sweet." Likewise, we may form the judgment which
results in the proposition: "Vinegar is not sweet."
While the process of judgment is generally considered as constituting
the second great step of thinking, coming after the formation of the
concept, and consisting of the comparing of concepts, it must be
remembered that the act of judging is far more elementary than this, for
it is found still farther back in the history of thought processes. By
that peculiar law of paradox which we find everywhere operative in mind
processes, the same process of forming judgments which is used in
comparing concepts also has been used in forming the same concepts in
the stage of comparison. In fact, the result of all comparison, high or
low, must be _a judgment_.
Halleck says: "Judgment is necessary in forming concepts. When we decide
that a quality is or is not common to a class, we are really judging.
This is another evidence of the complexity and unified action of the
mind." Brooks says: "The power of judgment is of great value in its
products. It is involved in or accompanies every act of the intellect,
and thus lies at the foundation of all intellectual activity. It
operates directly in every act of the understanding, and even aids the
other faculties of the mind in completing their activities and products.
* * * Strictly speaking, every intelligent act of the mind is
accompanied with a judgment. To know is to discriminate and, therefore,
to judge. Every sensation or cognition involves a knowledge and so a
judgment that it exists. The mind cannot think at all without judging;
to think is to judge. Even in forming the notions which judgment
compares, the mind judges. Every notion or concept implies a previous
act of judgment to form it; in forming a concept we compare the common
attributes before we unite them, and comparison is judgment. It is thus
true that 'Every concept is a contracted judgment; every judgment an
expanded concept.'"
It is needless to say that as judgments lie at the base of our thinking,
and also appear in every part of its higher structure, the importance of
correct judgment in thought cannot be overestimated. But it is often
very difficult to form correct judgment even regarding the most
familiar things around us. Halleck says: "In actual life things present
themselves to us with their qualities disguised or obscured by other
conflicting qualities. Men had for ages seen burning substances and had
formed a concept of them. A certain hard, black, stony substance had
often been noticed, and a concept had been formed of it. This concept
was imperfect; but it is very seldom that we meet with perfect,
sharply-defined concepts in actual life. So it happened that for ages
the concept of burning substance was never linked by judgment to the
concept of stone coal. The combustible quality in the coal was
overshadowed by its stony attributes. 'Of course stone will not burn,'
people said. One cannot tell how long the development of mankind was
retarded for that very reason. England would not to-day be manufacturing
products for the rest of the world had not some one judged coal to be a
combustible substance. * * * Judgment is ever silently working and
comparing things that to past ages seemed dissimilar; and it is
constantly abstracting and leaving out of the field of view those
qualities which have simply served to obscure the point at issue."
Gordy says: "The credulity of children is proverbial; but if we get our
facts at first hand, if we study 'the living, learning, playing child,'
we shall see that he is quite as remarkable for incredulity as for
credulity. The explanation is simple: _He tends to believe the first
suggestion that comes into his mind, no matter from what source_; and
since his belief is not the result of any rational process, he cannot be
made to disbelieve it in any rational way. Hence it is that he is very
credulous about any matter about which he has no ideas; but let the idea
once get possession of his mind, and he is quite as remarkable for
incredulity as before for credulity. * * * If we study the larger
child,--the man with a child's mind, an uneducated man,--we shall have
the same truth forced upon us. If the beliefs of men were due to
processes of reasoning, where they have not reasoned they would not
believe. But do we find it so? Is it not true that the men who have the
most positive opinions on the largest variety of subjects--so far as
they have ever heard of them--are precisely those who have the least
right to them? Socrates, we remember, was counted the wisest man in
Athens because he alone resisted his natural tendency to believe in the
absence of evidence; he alone would not delude himself with the conceit
of knowledge without the reality; and it would scarcely be too much to
say that the intellectual strength of men is in direct proportion to the
number of things they are absolutely certain of. * * * I do not, of
course, mean to intimate that we should have no opinions about matters
that we have not personally investigated. We take, and ought to take,
the opinion of some men about law, and others about medicine, and others
about particular sciences, and so on. But we should clearly realize the
difference between holding an opinion on trust and holding it as the
result of our own investigations."
Brooks says: "It should be one of the leading objects of the culture of
young people to lead them to acquire the habit of forming judgments.
They should not only be led to see things but to have opinions about
things. They should be trained to see things in their relations and to
put these relations into definite propositions. Their ideas of objects
should be worked up into thoughts concerning the objects. Those methods
of teaching are best which tend to excite a thoughtful habit of mind
that notices the similitudes and diversities of objects and endeavors to
read the thoughts which they embody and of which they are the symbols."
The study of logic, geometry, and the natural sciences is recommended
for exercise of the faculty of judgment and the development thereof. The
study and practice of even the lower branches of mathematics are also
helpful in this direction. The game of checkers or chess is recommended
by many authorities. Some have advocated the practice of solving
enigmas, problems, rebuses, etc., as giving exercise to this faculty of
the mind. The cultivation of the "Why?" attitude of mind, and the
answering of one's own mental questions, is also helpful, if not carried
to excess. "Doubting Thomas" is not always a term of reproach in these
days of scientific habits of thought, and "the man from Missouri" has
many warm admirers.