鈥淢OST people would die sooner than think 鈥� in fact they do so.鈥�
Philosopher Bertrand Russell coined this maxim back in 1925, as a witty aside in a passage about how difficult it is to understand relativity. It has since become a standard lament about people鈥檚 ignorance and incuriosity.
These are certainly worth lamenting. But to equate them with lack of thought is to misunderstand what thought really is. The kind of 鈥渢hinking鈥� Russell had in mind is actually a very narrow class of thought: systematic, logical and goal-directed.
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This is a useful and powerful tool 鈥� and we rightly praise people who are good at it, admiringly calling them 鈥渢hinkers鈥�. But to define thought this narrowly ignores the true richness of our mental lives (see 鈥�Thoughts: The inside story鈥�).
Think about thoughts 鈥� in itself a mind-boggling feat 鈥� and you quickly realise that they come in many varieties, from idle reverie to determined problem-solving. As far as we know, these are experiences only humans enjoy. In fact, 鈥渢hought鈥� may be the best answer to the perennial question: 鈥淲hat makes us human?鈥�.
That is a thought. But try to articulate where it comes from, and you may find yourself stymied. Thinking comes so naturally to us that we rarely stop to consider how ineffable and ill-understood it is. Nor is it any easier to pin down how we solve problems, or come up with ideas.
聯Thinking comes so naturally to us that we rarely stop to consider how ineffable it is聰
We鈥檝e developed plenty of techniques that help us do those things, of course, from logic to brainstorming to philosophy. And there are technologies to help us gather individual thoughts into collective knowledge, from writing to social networking.
The combination of thinking techniques and information technologies has helped us make great strides. It is hard to envisage how our technological and intellectual achievements would exist without it.
Now science is slowly revealing the totality of thought. Will this help us harness the other kinds of thought any better than we do now? Perhaps it will at least increase our respect for them, and for those who think differently to us. And perhaps it will give the lie, once and for all, to Russell鈥檚 jaded maxim.
