Thinking [Paperback]

We are but thinking reeds, but because we know, we are superior to
the universe. Thought constitutes our greatness.
— PASCAL

This is a book about our thinking. If we begin to think more actively, some stun; changes are possible: we can know ourselves better, we can have more ops in life, we can distinguish fact from fiction and hype from hope, we can n to think more decisively as we choose liferoads to walk down, and we can become more persuasive as we listen and talk to our fellow thinkers.

We often define ourselves by our actions. In a way, we are what we do, but perhaps more than we realize, we are what we think. For instance, if people pretend to like someone whom they hate, is it their hateful thinking or their false acting (or both) that really represents what they are? "Whether a thought is sport or not, it is the real thing and has power" (Herbert, 1987, p. 257).

We want you, the reader, to use this book, to challenge your mind, to strengthen your thinking ability. Five hundred years ago Leonardo da Vinci used analogy that is being supported by research today: "Just as iron rusts unless it is used . . . so our intellect spoils unless it is kept in use." (Da Vinci, p. 294). Dr. Gold Scheible, director of the Brain Research Institute at UCLA, tells us: "If you decrease input you decrease structure. The brain is just like a muscle-use it or lose Indeed, "scientists are now discovering that the brain can grow and reorganize If, within limits, past puberty and well into adulthood" (Sheppard, 2000, p. 42).

We have used our brain to explore the universe, and the sciences of physics td astronomy are now firmly established. But exploring our thinking will be more difficult. The neurosciences are still at an early stage, even though knowledge of the brain has leapt exponentially. We have already identified many of the neurotransmitters that control neural activity, and our ability to look inside the brain has progressed from anatomy to EEG to CAT to MRI to PET to MRS to PEPSI (proton echo-planar spectroscopic imaging). Even with these advances, unlike the DNA code in genetics, the brain code has not been deciphered. If we use physics as a measure, brain research may still be at the pre-Newtonian stage of knowledge.

Complicating this puzzle is our brain's enormous intricacy: Over a trillion cells compose it; 100 billion of them are neurons devoted to our thinking process. Each of these, on the average, reaches out to make thousands and thousands of other contacts. If we could walk along this marvelous labyrinth, the number of different journeys we could take may exceed the number of atoms in the universe! The neurons cannot communicate to quite that extent, but the number of real, potential pathways in the brain is still absolutely unimaginable! With such tremendous complexity, can our thinking brain even begin to comprehend itself?

And that, perhaps, is the greatest obstacle of all: we are attempting to know our mind with our mind. That is like a pair of pliers trying to grasp itself. How can the instrument of thinking grasp itself? While this obstacle may seem theoretically insurmountable, practically we do experience the ability to reflect on our thought; and in an attempt to escape from this cyclic conundrum, we will frequently stress communicating our thinking in writing and in dialogue so that we can objectively analyze the results of our thinking. One of the best ways to understand what is in our mind is by what comes out of it: our expressed thinking.

This book is not pitched towards a specific discipline: students of all disciplines think. No one area of research or academic discipline owns a monopoly on thinking: the more we share our knowledge the better thinking we can do. In this text we have begun at our classical wellspring of thought, and we have drawn ideas on thinking from every subsequent period of history from the philosophers, the poets, the scientists, the psychologists, the linguists, and the neuroscientists.

Professors of philosophy will find a large chapter on deductive and inductive logic, with formal and informal fallacies. Other fallacies are placed logically throughout this text as are contributions from Parmenides, Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Ockham, Anselm, Aquinas, Montaigne, Pascal, Descartes, Bacon, Spilioza, Locke, Hume, Kant, Schopenhauer, James, Dewey, Russell, and Wittgenstein.

English professors will find that our definition of thinking focuses on the expressed thought of writing: writing is called the mirror of our mind. Most of the chapters are directly applicable to writing. For instance, "Language" heightens word awareness, deepens knowledge about crafting a structure, and stresses clarity and brevity, thus assisting expository writing. "Sensing and Listening" helps the writer perceive more acutely and describe more vividly; thus it demonstrates the descriptive paper. "Feeling" helps writers infuse pulse and tone into their writing. "Creative Thinking," which addresses the beginning point of discovery that incorporates classical topics and invention, helps writers solve the fundamental hurdle of saying something strong and original. "Organizing" supports writing a research paper by demonstrating what all good writing needs: a clean structure. "Persuasive Thinking" presents powerful methods to move other minds that can be used in writing a persuasive paper. All of these chapters have been successfully used in writing classes, and there are over three hundred thinking challenges which can be given as writing assignments.

The scientifically minded will find a full chapter on scientific thinking as well as chapters dealing with each step of the scientific method: observation correlates with the chapter on sensing, hypothesis with creativity, experimentation with action, and validation with evaluation. Additionally, there are references throughout this text to neuro-research, to the chaos theory, and to giants such as Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Mendeleev, Einstein, and Watson and Crick.

Psychology professors will find that we deal with the whole person, addressing the cognitive, behavioral, and affective dimensions. The chapter "Personal Barriers" covers important cultural and psychological barriers to clear drinking. "Brain and Memory" addresses the neurological basis of thinking, the erects of drugs, and some characteristics of memory and forgetting. "Scientific chinking" examines various research designs, their limitations, and the assumptions of the scientific method. In addition, throughout this text we draw upon psychological research and such psychological thinkers as Freud, Jung, James, Winner, and Maslow.

Thinking is a whole and cannot be chopped into chapters. Yet because we need some way to reflect upon and understand what is going on in our mind, we have organized this book according to "thinking bases," places to anchor and check a "dart" of our thinking. Some of the major bases, or thinking platforms, are sensing, feeling, language, creating, organizing, logical thinking, judging, deciding, and acting. All of these bases interrelate, and most of our thinking involves many of these fundamental bases.

Although the chapters on these bases are arranged somewhat "chronologically" from the original perception to the final result of thinking (decision and action), our thinking can begin at any point and jump to any other point. Rarely do we move systematically from one base to the next; sometimes we start with our memory and not with our senses. Except for repetition, each of our thinking acts is unique, just as each of us is unique. Pardon us then, this artificial, analytical act of chopping thinking into chapters.

To actively engage, enlarge, and enrich thinking, to help students adapt and personalize the chapter concepts, and to provide meaningful in-class and out-of-class assignments, we have placed over three hundred thinking challenges throughout the book, arranged into three kinds:

1. At the end of each chapter there are over a dozen thinking challenges, most of which can be easily used for group discussions, a journal entry, a personal reflection essay, a research paper, or a class presentation.
2. Within each chapter there are major thinking activities to help students practice or apply a particular aspect of thinking. These, too, can be used in multiple ways.
3. Also inside each chapter are brisk ventures into thinking called "Think About It." These summons to think can also be used flexibly. All of the thinking supports in this book can greatly enliven a classroom.

In addition, the book contains selections from students and some highlighted material on great and courageous thinkers like Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, and Benedict de Spinoza. These can serve as models of inspiration for students' thinking. Lastly, each chapter has an introduction that weaves the coming sections together and a summary to reinforce and bring the concepts home.

Throughout this text, the reader is encouraged to pause and think often, to use this book as a beginning place to understand one's thinking and to improve it, and then to go on to discover, create, and apply one's thinking toward a richer life.

Three assumptions underlie this text. First, we believe that the teaching of thinking is best done through an interdisciplinary approach. All the logic courses in the world will fail to unseat psychological barriers rooted in enculturation, fear, or a need to protect one's self-esteem. Nor is logic alone particularly useful to a stressed mind, a depressed mind, or one possessed by an ideology. For these reasons we have challenged students in these areas, helped them to see the roots of their irrational thinking, and given them the freedom and insight to begin letting go of these barriers. By transcending more conventional methods of teaching thinking, and by including thinkers in many fields of study, both East and West, we hope that we have set a good example.

Second, we believe that thinking is best taught constructively as well as critically. Therefore, some chapters, such as science, emphasize critical thinking; while others, such as problem solving and creativity, emphasize constructive thinking. Both approaches are needed to develop a well-rounded and solid thinker.

Lastly, we believe that we can learn to think better with an honest effort at self-reflection and practice, tested and honed whenever possible in the dialogue of expressed thought. For this reason students are given thinking, writing, and discussion activities and challenges throughout this book.

We have presented one approach to understand and to sharpen thinking, and have attempted to avoid being dogmatic. The vast and largely unknown arena of the mind would be a foolish place in which to be dogmatic. We encourage you to think about the ideas in this book, to find the hidden assumptions, to challenge the stated positions, and most importantly, to adapt these thoughts into a better way of thinking for yourself.

As the world changes in knowledge, as we, the authors, grow in understanding, as others continue to give us feedback on our text, Thinking continues to grow accordingly. We have rechecked every sentence for clarity of expression, and every idea for a reasonable completeness. Thus, words have been replaced, sentences added, and topics expanded. New research has been added throughout, but at the same time numerous works of more classical thinkers have been incorporated. Thus, the reader may find research from the new millennium in one paragraph and a poignant remark from a classic philosopher or essayist in the next. The book retains its interdisciplinary focus and strength, drawing from Western philosophy and scientific research in a variety of disciplines, and from the philosophy and literature of the East. More specifically, some of the more salient changes to this edition are as follows:

Chapter 2, "Personal Barriers," has received an additional thinking activity "on preventing stress, a profile on the courageous thinker Spinoza, and an expanded treatment of rationalization. Chapter 4, "Brain and Memory," has incorporated some of the new research from the "Decade of the Brain," that last decade of the Millennium during which, according to one neuroscientist, we have made more progress in understanding the brain than in all of human history. In this chapter we have included new research on the effects of drugs on thinking, sleep requirements for a healthy cognitive life, and the effects of psychological stress on memory recall. To chapter 8, "Organization," we have added efficient thinking processes to deal with the electronic age and especially the internet.

"Logical Thinking," chapter 9, was significantly expanded and altered for the second edition. In this edition we have made lesser modifications. We have added two fallacies: the genetic fallacy and the is/ought fallacy, and have modified or rewritten several others. Also, several Think About Its have been added, examples changed, and numerous clarifications made throughout.

The chapter with the most extensive changes is chapter 10, "Scientific Thinking." The sections on controlled experiments, correlational design, and significance (now called the "rule of chance") have been entirely revamped. Additionally, sections on ex post facto design and quasi-experimental approaches have been added. The first step of the scientific method, observation, has been rewritten, the section on proving a theory has been expanded, and a new thinking activity on determining research designs has been introduced. Also new is a box discussing opinion versus facts, new thinking about placebos, and new cases of scientific fraud. Throughout, the reader is also introduced to new material from Jung, Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein, Popper, and Spinoza.

Chapter 11, "Persuasive Thinking," now houses the two additional fallacies of to quoque and the red herring fallacy, along with an expanded treatment of ignoring the question. And new research visits the foot-in-the-door technique and the use of fear in persuasion.

Lastly, chapter 12, "Problem Solving," has a new thinking activity on forming precise definitions for problem solving, an expansion of the section on working backwards, and numerous smaller changes.

In sum, this edition has seen its bibliography expand by almost over sixty, four new fallacies and several new thinking activities added, additional boxed material, and hundreds upon hundreds of smaller changes to enhance clarity and completeness. With the help of an educator to further explain, clarify, and elaborate the ideas within, to choose the topics of his or her choice for a tailor-made course, and to provide the answers and discussions for the numerous thinking activities, students will have adequate fodder for enriching their thinking, for enriching their life.

An instructor's manual is available from Prentice Hall. This manual nearly doubles the amount of discussion topics and thinking activities in the text and gives motivating introductions, chapter goals, content overviews, lecture ideas, answers to thinking activities, and testing options.