THINKING-REFLECTION: WHAT’S THE POINT? – PART II. . .

Gentle reader, I concluded PART I with: …what gives rise to these non-empirical questions – questions that continue to baffle us even after thousands of years of attempting to answer them?  And, ‘What’s the point’ in our taking the time to engage them? 

In two words: Self, Reflection.  Self-reflection.  We human beings are not only capable of reflecting upon ourselves, we are self-reflecting almost continuously (even in our dreams – night and day dreams).  Even when we do something out of habit we frequently stop and reflect on the habit.  And there is more, we can, and do, reflect upon our reflection.

We can ask ourselves, ‘Do you really know what you are talking about?’  For many of us, this question is also offered us by the other(s).  Sometimes this question is rooted in curiosity and sometimes it is rooted in irony.  If the question is rooted in curiosity it will take some reflection in order to respond to it.  I might, for example, need to reflect upon my own understanding of what I am actually talking about.  I might also need to be clear as to my sources – think: the authorities I might be following.

I cannot begin to recall the number of times I became aware that I was not really sure of what I meant.  This can be anxiety producing and it can also provide me an invitation and opportunity for further reflection.  I might also ask myself: Is what I am saying ‘objectively’ true or is it rooted in subjectivism (think: assumptions, stereotypes, prejudices, etc.).

When I reflect upon these types of questions I might well find myself thinking about certain categories/concepts: knowledge, objectivity, truth, beauty, goodness, virtue, vice, etc. My reflection might well motivate me to reflect more deeply about one or more of these.

For me, reflection – thinking about – often emerges during the course of a deep conversation.  In this case, the person(s) I am engaging will also engage in the process.  We search together.  I relish and savor these experiences.

Then, of course, there are those who by the very nature of their vocation/calling are charged to hone their reflective capacities.  I love history and a historian, for example, is bound to engage in a reflective process.  He/she must ask, at some point, what is meant by ‘objectivity’ and ‘evidence’ and ‘truth.’

When the historian engages in this reflective process he or she becomes a philosopher (a seeker and lover of wisdom).  The historian can engage in this reflective process in a way that is deemed to be a ‘bad process’ (history is not short of ‘bad historians’) or in a way that is deemed to be a ‘good process’ (we have also been blessed with many ‘good historians’).  The point, of course, is to do ‘it’ (the process) well.

Given this, I, once again, leave us with a question: How can one acquire these thinking-reflective skills?

Stay tuned…