He Synthetic method Is an analytical process of reasoning that seeks to reconstruct an event in a summarized way, using the most important elements that took place during that event.
In other words, the synthetic method is one that allows humans to summarize something we know.
The synthesis is a mental process that seeks to compress the information present in our memory . This process operates in such a way that we are able to identify all that we know and abstract the most important parts and particulars of it.
In this way, we are able to reintegrate these parts, creating a short version that can express the most important information about the known.
This method is analytical because it is a process that goes beyond the merely mechanical. The analytical method abstracts the essence of knowledge in an organized and premeditated form.
This is how you can advance in the knowledge , Only repeating what is worth repeating, and not the totality of what is known (Kairos, 2017).
In this sense, Engels He affirmed that the analysis is essential for the existence of the synthetic method, since it allows to embrace the totality of the known and only to take that of greater relevance and to integrate it to express the same idea in a more concise form (Limón, 2007).
What is the synthesis?
Synthesis is a process that takes place only in the thought . In this sense, it is a conscious process that is far from arbitrary.
It is responsible for gathering the most relevant elements present in the consciousness, in order to create complete, real and concise units of knowledge.
It is a process that goes from the abstract to the concrete, as it takes all the parts of knowledge, its essential aspects and relationships, then deconstructs and restructures them only by taking the fundamental elements.
It is said, then, that synthesis allows the gathering of isolated (abstract) elements, to convert them into real (concrete) knowledge (Philosophy, 2003).
Keys to the synthetic method
1- The synthetic method requires that all parts of the knowledge be exposed before it is analyzed and summarized.
In this way, the principles, definitions and notions must be clarified in such a way that they can be deconstructed and reconstructed later.
2 - The truth about general questions must always be exposed, in order to be able to emit particular and concrete truths.
This is because the nature of the synthetic method is always to pass from the universal or abstract to the particular or concrete.
The concrete
When the synthesis takes several abstract elements and structures them within a unit of knowledge, it is said that it happens to the concrete.
In this sense, the concrete is a theoretical compression that tends to"compact"more and more with the passage of time.
The nature of the synthetic method will always lead to theoretical thinking, where it will be increasingly sought to punctuate and precise the information.
This method is a natural mental action that humans perform as a theoretical form of acting.
Analysis and synthesis
Although the synthesis implies making use of the analysis, the synthetic and analytical judgment differ in some points. These two judgments are usually complementary and enrich each other (one can not exist without the other), however, sometimes they can be contrasted.
Analytical judgment is responsible for breaking down knowledge into the parts that compose it. It uses mental operations that allow the totality of any phenomenon to be divided.
For its part, the synthetic judgment is responsible for uniting the most relevant heterogeneous elements of knowledge with the aim of finding a general truth (Cline, 2017).
Analysis is then an activity that goes from the particular to the general, while the synthesis is in charge of going from the general to the particular.
This is why all natural sciences use the synthetic method to produce hypotheses about particular elements or of the same order.
The hypotheses
The hypotheses start from the synthesis process, in that they combine several concepts to establish a particular judgment.
The synthesis creates concepts that when assembled together produce hypotheses. In this sense, a hypothesis can be understood as a type of synthesis where concepts are associated in a simple or complex way.
For example, if I decided to link the concepts of emotional stress and work accidents, the synthesis would allow me to establish the following judgment as a hypothesis: when workers suffer from emotional stress they are more likely to suffer occupational accidents.
Laws of the synthetic and analytical method
1 - They must present clearly and precisely the object to be clarified. Critical points related to this object should also be mentioned. In this way, it will be possible to produce rational knowledge about the object in question.
2 - The object to be treated must be separated from the other objects. That is, pluralities must be avoided in order to pay attention to a single element at the same time.
3 - The observation of the object must begin with the simplest things or already known about it. The process of knowledge is always gradual and successive, therefore, it usually proceeds from the easiest to the most complicated. In other words, it passes from the known to the unknown.
4 - The means used to reach knowledge must relate to the object being observed. This is because, the ways to arrive at a truth will always depend on the kind of truth one wants to know (Russell, 2017).
Examples of synthetic method
1 - Resolution of a crime
To solve a crime we must first go from the general information we have about it.
Only then will we be able to slowly unite the pieces of information we have on hand to find answers and be able to explain how the events related to that crime took place.
In other words, you come to a whole from its parts.
2 - Medical diagnosis
To give a medical diagnosis to a person, prior to performing some type of laboratory examination, the doctor asks the individual for their symptoms.
In this case, the doctor joins the information that the patient gives him to determine what type of illness he has.
References
- Cline, A. (February 12, 2017). Thoughtco . Obtained from Analytic Vs. Synthetic Statements: thoughtco.com
- (2017). Kairos . Retrieved from Synthetic-Analytic Approach: kairos.technorhetoric.net
- Limón, R. R. (2007). Net . Retrieved from"HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT": eumed.net
- Philosophy, S. E. (August 14, 2003). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Retrieved from The Analytic / Synthetic Distinction: plato.stanford.edu
- Russell, G. (2017). Oxford Bibliographies . Retrieved from Analytic / Synthetic Distinction: oxfordbibliographies.com.