Abstract: Starting from the two old topics “artistic thinking” and “image thinking”, this article tries to reveal the connotation of artistic thinking which is much extensive than that of image thinking. And on this basis, the article puts forward some tentative ideas for setting up a philosophy of artistic thinking. The article expounds on the acquisition of the nature of matter from five levels: direct perceiving sense, abs tract logic, emotional will, priori cognition and cultural signs, and describes the process of this acquisition. Finally, the article concludes that the nature of artistic thinking is personified thinking.

Key words: philosophy of artistic thinking, personified thinking