Thinking - Why Bother (original) (raw)

We had a wide ranging discussion on the topic of 'Thinking - Why Bother?' at the meeting on Wednesday. I thought I would add a list of some of the topics and points discussed for people to comment on.

One of the fundamental questions was 'Do we actually think?'

At the level of the fact that I am aware of thoughts which I treat as my own, everyone seemed to agree that yes we do think. However, there was dissension over whether I think (create?) thoughts which I actually control. Some argued that 'my' thoughts are simply the product of my biological structure and the feeling of choice and control is simply an illusion. Others disagreed, arguing that this belief renders thought (and philosophical discussion) meaningless.

The argument went as follows: If my thoughts are a fully determined product of the brain, then there is no way of knowing whether my thoughts have any truth or not. It is analogous to deciding the truth of a question by relying on the purely physical process of flipping a coin. Further, if someone else's thought are fully determined by their physical brain, and they disagree with me, I cannot say their view is wrong in any sense, because their view is grounded in the same way mine is. (Perhaps the coin flipped in their brain was heads and not tails).

Whether or not I actually think, it seems that thinking is the method by which we think (or actually do) try and know better what the world is actually like. Presumably, the more we understand what the world is actually like, the better we can live in it.

However, does thinking actually achieve anything? In particular is there any point to the sort of philosophical discussion which Quaerentes does?

We did not come to any strong agreement about this. It could be just that we enjoy thinking and discussing and so it is pure entertainment. It could be that thinking is actually our method for discovering what is true (do we have to completely certain about something for it to be true?). At some level it seems to influence the way we live our lives, but is this good or bad?

That is a brief summary, from memory (and so necessarily biased), of what we discussed. Please comment on this and continue the discussion here. If you were at the meeting and think I missed anything or misrepresented anything, please post that as well.

Enjoy thinking (whatever it is or is there for)

Ryan