line of thought

plural lines of thought · alternative line of thinking

1. figurativelyA way of thinking about a particular topic, concept, or problem, that follows a logical progression of reasoning or argument.

   Let me approach this line of thought a bit indirectly.

   2009, Robert J. Richards, “Darwin's place in the history of thought: A reevaluation”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, volume 106

   2 more examples

   In the present chapter, I want to develop this line of thought in greater detail and at the same time clear up some difficulties that a number of my critics have claimed to find in my account of these matters.

   2013, E. J. Lowe, Forms of Thought: A Study in Philosophical Logic, Cambridge University Press, page 31

   Similarly, to take twenty-five years of free-form, cross-cutting social, political, economic, and historical writing growing out of work at a single, unstandard, American institution and isolate it as an "era" in such writing — a stage, a phase, a line of thought — is to pursue an agenda, take a position, state a case.

   2001, Clifford Geertz, “School Building: A Retrospective Preface”, in Joan Wallach Scott, Debra Keates, editors, Schools of Thought: Twenty-five Years of Interpretive Social Science, page 1

2. figurativelyWay of thinking.

   "Even today there is a dictatorship of a narrow line of thought" which kills "people's freedom, their freedom of conscience," the Pope expressed in his April 10 daily Mass.

   2014, Elise Harris, Pope Francis warns against the dictatorship of narrow thought, Catholic News Agency