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

Gentle reader, I concluded PART II with a question that I will now respond to: How can thinking-reflecting skills be acquired? 

Developing the skills/capacities so that one might think-reflect well is NOT primarily a matter of acquiring certain knowledge.  It involves BOTH a ‘knowing what’ and a ‘knowing how.’  The ‘knowing how’ is often more challenging.

If, gentle reader, you have been following my postings these past 6+ years you know that I admire Socrates (the person Plato refers to, not the cat – although Socrates the Cat is also quite insightful).  Socrates did not pride himself on ‘what’ he knew.  He prided himself on his dearth of knowledge AND on his ability to frame questions (the ‘how’) that would reveal how little the other(s) knew.

To process ‘knowledge’ – the ‘what one knows’ – requires that one embraces listening first in order to understand; that one holds an attitude that one might well be influenced by the other(s), and that one develops his/her capacity for inquiry (we develop our capacity for inquiry by asking many questions and then by reflecting upon the outcomes, the responses, and the feedback, etc.).  In addition, each of us is charged with striving to detect and address ambiguities while striving to develop thought-full arguments and alternatives (this is called, ‘Critical Thinking,’ and we, in our culture, are not very good at this discipline/skill).

I am sitting here finding myself returning to my original question: What’s the Point?  Why bother with this question?  I cannot begin to count the number of times a person has said to me something like this: Reflective Thinking is nice to think about BUT it doesn’t build bridges or bake bread or sail ships.  We need to get on with the ‘real work.’

These questions are crucial questions.  I do have a response – actually, I have a three-part response (I perceive all three to be crucial).  I first discerned these and named them in the mid-nineties.  I have never been comfortable with the ‘names’ I have given them; currently I call them: The Ideal, The Real and The Real+.

What’s the Point?

The ‘Ideal.’  True, ‘thinking-reflection’ does not bake bread or build bridges BUT then, again, neither does, architecture, music, art or knowledge itself.  As human beings we are naturally curious and we are ‘natural’ seekers of knowledge and understanding.  How many of us parents have been whelmed over by our young child asking us, again, and again, and again, and again, ‘WHY?’  We seek knowledge and understanding for its own sake.  I had a college roommate who would spend hours working on mathematical problems that had no solution – why? – for his own sake.

My roommate, Ken, was not concerned with practical application.  We humans do spend a great deal of time ‘doing’ – making, implementing, working concretely, etc.  On the other hand, the ‘Ideal’ is crucial for our wellbeing.  We know that it is crucial for us to develop our ‘mind’ – our intellect, our thinking capacity, our capacity to think abstractly, our capacity to frame questions that challenge our thinking.  Our intellectual health relies on our embracing the ‘Ideal’.  As an elder, for example, I continue to read and to read things that challenge my intellect because nurturing my intellect helps minimize the negative aspects of aging.

Our mental health is good in and of itself.  So that’s one reply to ‘What’s the Point?’

There are two additional replies.  Stay tuned.