Most people consider their own mental processes to be what thinking is, without ever considering the nature of the activity and without ever questioning the effectiveness of their particular methods. Modern schooling practices discourage critical thinking by their very nature (e.g. multiple choice testing) and leave young people without this most crucial of acquired life skills. Much of the mental activity most people indulge in is counterproductive and unworthy of the term ‘thinking’.

Here at lawfulrebel.com, we consider thinking the most important thing that people can do. We advocate questioning assumptions and thinking outside the box. A degree of thinking about thinking is necessary. This post is the first step in addressing what thinking is, what it is not, some common misconceptions about it, and how to do it more effectively. Let’s begin the discussion with a look at why it is so important.

Because it defines us as human

It is our capacity for thinking that defines us as human. It sets us apart from the higher animals, plants and all other living organisms. Specifically it is our capacity for conceptual thought, or to conceptualise. This means our ability to discern similarities and differences between real life things and create mental categories in our mind. This is the essence of concept formation and the process of abstraction. Abstraction means to take out. Our uniquely human ability to extract or take out the similarities of things and form a concept – and the label we give to the mental grouping – sets us up to acquire an unlimited amount of knowledge about reality. Our potential for knowledge massively exceeds the capability of animals because we can see similarities and difference in concepts themselves, as well as specific concretes, or specific things.

Interestingly most people shy away from the word abstraction or the idea of conceptualising, perhaps considering it too intellectual, and yet we all use abstractions and concepts all the time. Every word in our language with the exception of proper nouns (names) represents a concept. It is our human capacity for language that represents our use of concepts in conceptual thinking. Every time we learn something new or come across a new word for something, our mind must perform an abstraction. As a child when you learned what a table was, you performed an abstraction – identifying the group of things with legs that are used to put things on, and then you learned the label for that concept was agreed to be ‘table’.

It is because of our human capacity to think conceptually, and to use language as a means of verbalising our concepts that point to a definition of ‘thinking’ as being a specifically conceptual process, that is one involving words. It is only when our thoughts are put into words that they can be exposed to the scrutiny of reason using logic and therefore tested for their correlation with reality – whether or not they make sense!

It’s our primary survival Tool

Thinking is our most important survival tool, whether in the wilderness or in modern high-tech urban living. Our survival depends on our ability to work out what to do. Like it or not, we humans have no innate knowledge. You cannot know what berries are poisonous and which are good for you. You have to figure out how to build a shelter and where to find water just as you have to figure out how to build a house, make money, socially interact etc.

It’s the means of connecting with reality

Thinking is how we connect with reality, it is our primary cognitive tool. It couldn’t get more essential than that. Most people are familiar with the idea that sanity is being ‘in touch with reality.’ The means of being in touch with reality is to accurately perceive it...