Train of thought

For other uses, see Train of thought (disambiguation).

The train of thought, stream of thought, or chain of thought refers to the interconnection in the sequence of ideas expressed during a connected discourse or thought, as well as to the sequence itself, especially in discussion how this sequence leads from one idea to another. Discourse (L discursus, "running to and from" means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion Thought and thinking are mental forms and Processes respectively ("thought" is both

When a reader or listener "loses the train of thought", i. e. , loses the relation between consecutive sentences or phrases, or the relation between non-verbal concepts in an argument or presentation, they lose comprehension of the expressed or unexpressed thought. ^[1]

Inability to maintain one's train of thought is among the symptoms of thought disorder, either because of mental illness or drug abuse. In Psychiatry, thought disorder or formal thought disorder is a term used to describe a pattern of disordered language use that is presumed to reflect disordered thinking Mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern that occurs in an individual and is thought to cause distress or disability that is not expected as Drug abuse has a wide range of definitions related to taking a Psychoactive drug or Performance enhancing drug for a non-therapeutic or non-medical effect

The term "train of thoughts" was introduced and elaborated as early as in 1651 by Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan in a somewhat different meaning, like that of the British Associationists:

It is sometimes argued that the origin of "chain of thought" was from medieval times when knights wearing "chain" mail armour often "thought" about how lucky they were to not have their heads cut off as easily as those not wearing any armour. Thomas Hobbes (born 5 April 1588died 4 December 1679 was an English philosopher, whose famous 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation Leviathan or The Matter Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly called Leviathan, is a book written by Thomas Association of Ideas, or Mental association, is a term used principally in the History of philosophy and of psychology to refer to explanations about

By Consequence, or train of thoughts, I understand that succession of one thought to another which is called, to distinguish it from discourse in words, mental discourse.

When a man thinketh on anything whatsoever, his next thought after is not altogether so casual as it seems to be. Not every thought to every thought succeeds indifferently. ^[2]

References

^ Edward Parmelee Morris, "On Principles and Methods in Latin Syntax" (1901), Chapter VI: "Parataxis"
^ Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, The First Part: Of Man, Chapter III: Of the Consequence or Train of Imagination

Absent-mindedness can refer to three very different things a low level of Attention ("blanking" or “zoning out” intense attention to a single Internal monologue, also known as inner voice, internal speech, or stream of consciousness is Thinking in Words It also refers See also Daydreaming and Attention. Mind-wandering (sometimes referred to as task unrelated thought) is a topic in Experimental psychology Association of Ideas, or Mental association, is a term used principally in the History of philosophy and of psychology to refer to explanations about Associationism in philosophy refers to the idea that mental processes operate by the association of one state with its successor states The pilcrow (¶ Unicode U+00B6 HTML entity &para also called the Paragraph sign or the alinea ( Dream Theater is an American Progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name " Majesty " by John Myung, John Petrucci

Dictionary

-noun

The flow of different thoughts one experiences when thinking.

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