Editing Thought (section)

==Definition==
The terms "thought" and "thinking" refer to a wide variety of psychological activities.<ref name="BritannicaThought"/><ref>Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd ed., 2001, Published by Random House, Inc., {{ISBN|978-0-375-42599-8}}, p. 1975</ref><ref>Webster's II New College Dictionary, Webster Staff, Webster, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2nd ed., illustrated, revised Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999, {{ISBN|978-0-395-96214-5}}, p. 1147</ref> In their most common sense, they are understood as conscious processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation.<ref name="Breyer"/><ref name="Nida-rümelin"/> This includes various different mental processes, like considering an idea or proposition or judging it to be true. In this sense, memory and imagination are forms of thought but perception is not.<ref name="Crowell">{{cite book |last1=Crowell |first1=Steven |editor-first1=Thiemo |editor-first2=Christopher |editor-last1=Breyer |editor-last2=Gutland |title=Phenomenology of Thinking |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-69773-4 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315697734-14/think-steven-crowell |chapter=What Is It to Think?|pages=189–212 |doi=10.4324/9781315697734 }}</ref> In a more restricted sense, only the most paradigmatic cases are considered thought. These involve conscious processes that are conceptual or linguistic and sufficiently abstract, like judging, inferring, problem solving, and deliberating.<ref name="BritannicaThought">{{cite web |title=Thought |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/thought |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=14 October 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Mole">{{cite web |last1=Mole |first1=Christopher |title=Attention: 2.3 Coherence Theories |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/attention/#CohThe |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=21 October 2021 |date=2021}}</ref><ref name="Katsafanas">{{cite journal |last1=Katsafanas |first1=Paul |title=Nietzsche on the Nature of the Unconscious |journal=Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy |date=2015 |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=327–352 |doi=10.1080/0020174X.2013.855658 |s2cid=38776513 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/KATNOT}}</ref> Sometimes the terms "thought" and "thinking" are understood in a very wide sense as referring to any form of mental process, conscious or unconscious.<ref name="Garrison"/><ref name="Dijksterhuis"/> In this sense, they may be used synonymously with the term "mind". This usage is encountered, for example, in the [[Descartes|Cartesian tradition]], where minds are understood as thinking things, and in the [[cognitive science]]s.<ref name="Crowell"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Skirry |first1=Justin |title=Descartes, Rene: Mind-Body Distinction |url=https://iep.utm.edu/descmind/ |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=17 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Kurt |title=Descartes' Theory of Ideas: 1. Ideas Understood as Modes of Thinking |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-ideas/#thoughts |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=21 October 2021 |date=2021}}</ref><ref name="Baum"/> But this sense may include the restriction that such processes have to lead to intelligent behavior to be considered thought.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Block |first1=Ned |title=Psychologism and Behaviorism |journal=Philosophical Review |date=1981 |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=5–43 |doi=10.2307/2184371 |jstor=2184371 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/BLOPAB}}</ref> A contrast sometimes found in the academic literature is that between thinking and [[feeling]]. In this context, thinking is associated with a sober, dispassionate, and [[rational]] approach to its topic while feeling involves a direct [[emotion]]al engagement.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Romer |first1=Paul M. |title=Thinking and Feeling |journal=American Economic Review |date=May 2000 |volume=90 |issue=2 |pages=439–443 |doi=10.1257/aer.90.2.439 |url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.90.2.439 |language=en |issn=0002-8282}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Planalp |first1=Sally |last2=Fitness |first2=Julie |title=Thinking/Feeling about Social and Personal Relationships |journal=Journal of Social and Personal Relationships |date=1 December 1999 |volume=16 |issue=6 |pages=731–750 |doi=10.1177/0265407599166004 |s2cid=145750153 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265407599166004 |language=en |issn=0265-4075}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Phelan |first1=Mark |last2=Arico |first2=Adam |last3=Nichols |first3=Shaun |title=Thinking Things and Feeling Things: On an Alleged Discontinuity in Folk Metaphysics of Mind |journal=Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences |date=2013 |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=703–725 |doi=10.1007/s11097-012-9278-7 |s2cid=15856600 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/PHETTA}}</ref>

The terms "thought" and "thinking" can also be used to refer not to the mental processes themselves but to mental states or systems of ideas brought about by these processes.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing |title=The American Heritage Dictionary entry: thought |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=thought |website=www.ahdictionary.com |access-date=23 October 2021}}</ref> In this sense, they are often synonymous with the term "belief" and its cognates and may refer to the mental states which either belong to an individual or are common among a certain group of people.<ref name="Mandelbaum2">{{cite journal |last1=Mandelbaum |first1=Eric |title=Thinking is Believing |journal=Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy |date=2014 |volume=57 |issue=1 |pages=55–96 |doi=10.1080/0020174X.2014.858417 |s2cid=52968342 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/MANTIB-2}}</ref><ref name="DictThink">{{cite web |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing |title=The American Heritage Dictionary entry: think |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=think |website=www.ahdictionary.com |access-date=23 October 2021}}</ref> Discussions of thought in the academic literature often leave it implicit which sense of the term they have in mind.

The word ''thought'' comes from [[Old English]] ''þoht'', or ''geþoht'', from the stem of ''þencan'' "to conceive of in the mind, consider".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=Thought |title=Etymology of Thought |access-date=2009-05-22 |last=Harper |first=Douglas |website=Online Etymology Dictionary}}</ref>