I think thinkers can be separated into two or more categories, generally. On the one hand, you have thinkers who are very practical, technical, and precise. These thinkers are about accuracy and heavily rely on common sense, eschewing the imagination. Perhaps one could refer to them as "Technical Thinkers," as their work is very well worked out and all of the details are provided to support it, so that it can seen as "systematic." On the other hand, you have thinkers of a different kind, whom I like to call "Artistic Thinkers." These people put their minds to use in an entirely different fashion than the technical thinkers.
Where a technical thinker is practical, an artistic thinker is more indifferent, flexible, and adaptable -- not entirely focused on application so much as the process of thinking in and of itself, as a self-sufficient practice. Where a technical thinker is technical, the artistic thinker is more colorful and broad, stretching the bounds of the thought to include forms of art, rather than plain and dry literary devices or thinking methods or approaches. The technical thinker is very specialized, as well, tending to focus in-depth on one major area of interest, and generally ignoring all others, while the artistic thinker is much more versatile and wide-interested, moving more freely from interest to interest, tending to see them all as a collection of branches of one tree, which must all be considered in various ways. And where a technical thinker is precise and strict and rigorous, particular and exact, the artistic thinker is very loose, sketchy, abstracted, fuzzy, and dreamy, tending to paint with ideas, rather than take snapshots of reality.
A technical thinker sees the mind as a powerful tool which is to be used with extreme care -- cautiously and meticulously, so that error is reduced at all costs. Specific, well-polished truths are this types highest aim; they want to describe and understand reality according to some well-understood, error-free view, based on sound evidence. An artistic thinker, on the other hand, sees the mind as a painter sees a paintbrush: it's up to the subjective individual to use his/her own mind as they see fit, in whatever way will most benefit the individual in developing something amazing. In other words, these people see the mind not as some powerful tool to be exploited and treated like a chisel, in some protocol fashion, but as a form of "medium," which is an artistic term designating any instrument or technique which allows one to create art.
Usually, there are general approaches and techniques to creating art, but no one will strictly enforce this or that approach, generally, but merely suggest them as guiding measures. Hence, such a mentality provides the autonomy necessary for actual innovation. The individual is allowed the subjective freedom to explore his/her tools and environment in his/her own fashion. And the mind is merely a kind of artistic instrument to be used in new and interesting ways, to these thinkers.
And lastly, the technical thinker is very fact-driven, cold and dry -- entirely obsessed and based upon details and establishment. The status quo is very important for this type of thinker and they love to facilitate it. In their minds, there is a clear distinction between reality and imagination, as common sense easily entails. Yet, such is not the case with the artistic thinker. To these people, facts aren't so special, so as to be entirely worshiped, but merely provide a loose framework upon which an understanding can be built. Facts, then, are merely to be exploited and treated like tools, in aiding the human mind to better lead to the human race forward. They are to be reshaped and reworked in whatever fashion is necessary to create a well-structured understanding of the world, as concerns human interests. And so, imagination is better treated by these thinkers. Rather than limit themselves to knowledge strictly, they love to theorize in the abstract, using the imagination and intuition to propel the mind.
In the end, I guess you could say both types of thinkers are necessary, in the grand scheme of things. The technical thinkers are hard at work developing very practical, precise systems and ways of understanding our world which create an entire foundation and bedrock on which we can begin to step out into this world. The artistic thinkers, on the other hand, are more loose and general, developing abstract, artistic, all-encompassing systems which utilize the supporting results of the technical thinker's work.
This is just a random thought I've been developing, theoretically, but it seems to make sense, to me. I've noticed very different mentalities in different thinkers. And I suppose it's safe to say that most technical thinkers would naturally gravitate toward the sciences, where research and mathematics are strictly involved, whereas artistic thinkers would naturally gravitate toward philosophy, or any system which allows some room for abstract reasoning, with less defined limitations, where personal expression is allowed. And although the technical thinkers may be more precise and accurate, the artistic thinker is more enriched and deep -- colored with the various subjective, aesthetic aspects of the human spirit (loosely speaking). And in this way, I think people can be separated into the different fields of science and philosophy, although not exclusively, obviously, as there are people who may value both approaches to understanding.
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