Independent Thinking
....the past and the future

By Theodore Stanczuk

The word "education" does not mean one’s ability to read, write, and compute numbers. That belongs to literacy. Literacy is a prerequisite to one’s education. An illiterate person cannot be educated. A major objective in the aim of education is to learn how to think coherently. Aristotle said 2,500 years ago that the aim of education among other practical abilities, should be the development of the habit to reason coherently, and an ability to form decisive judgements.

One of the objectives in the aim of education is to ensure that all students learn how to think coherently. The Royal Commission on learning in its 1994 report "For the Love of Learning – A Short Version" – page 5, defines the purpose of schooling as follows: "building on basic reading, writing, and problem-solving skills to ever-increasing stages as well ever-deepening degrees of understanding across a variety of subject areas . . . more academic excellence, more rigorous analytic capacity, more genuine intellectual understanding, more power of thinking, reasoning, problem solving, than is now generally the case." (emphasis added)

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the World entered into a 1000 year period known as the Dark Ages. Independent thought was ruthlessly suppressed. Only politically (religiously) correct thought was safe to voice to avoid the inquisition’s wrath. Ignorance was the order of the day. Only 363 years ago, Galileo, at the age of 69, was forced to repent by the Roman Inquisition and swear that he "abjured, cursed, and detested" his notion that the Earth spins daily on its axis, and yearly travels around the Sun. He spent the last eight years of his life under house arrest. To the Roman Inquisition, Galileo’s notion of the Earth revolving around the Sun didn’t make any sense, because by observing the Sun’s travel over the sky, one may conclude that the Sun travels around the Earth. This made sense to the Roman Inquisition. We must guard ourselves from thinking that something makes sense – it is not good enough. Making sense, could only mean that the phenomenon was possible, but not necessarily probable or true. The only way to discover the truth is its testability, the principle that rules scientific thought.

Words "Cogito, ergo sum," is Descartes’ famous proposition. Translated from Latin it means "I think, therefore, I am," or "I think, therefore I exist." In his book "Two Meditations," René Descartes (1596-1650), one of the greatest philosophers, explains the meaning of the proposition:

"I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time that I pronounce it, or I merely conceive it. I find here that thought is an attribute that belongs to me; it alone cannot be separated from me. I am, I exist, that is certain. I am, however, a real thing and really exist; But what thing? A thing which thinks. What is a thing which thinks? It is a thing which doubts, understands, [conceives] affirms, denies, wills, refuses, which also imagines and feels."

All truth, errors, and misunderstandings lie in premises and propositions. How can one acquire the habit of coherent thinking? In his book "Basic Teaching of the Great Philosophers," S. E. Frost, Jr. Phd. writes: "Descartes sought a basis for establishing truth. He reasoned that one must start with premises which cannot be denied. Mathematics seemed to give him such premises. In mathematics he saw a model for correct thinking, the method of reasoning from self-evident truths. This appeared to him to be the method by which all true knowledge could be obtained."

Ernest Dimnet in his book "The Art of Thinking" writes: "Mere passing fancy, day-dreaming, and like are not thinking in any sense of the term. We think for a purpose . . . a man does not think unless he has a problem to solve." Any time we face a question or a problem to be worked out, we must think about it, deliberate, and reason pro and con before deciding what action we should take. In Ernest Dimnet’s words "some men possess it, others not; but those that do not possess it must blame themselves.... The more man thinks the better adapted he becomes to thinking, and education is nothing if it is not methodical creation of the habit of thinking."

George Orwell in a political novel published in 1950, titled "1984," pictures a dehumanized and totalitarian society, as seen through the eyes of Winston Smith, where the Party holds its power by controlling man’s most inner thoughts, and consequently all aspects of his life. Reality, the Party contended, is internal and inborn in man’s mind, and nowhere else, then by controlling the man’s mind the Party controls the "truth." What is the truth? "Whatever the Party holds to be truth, is truth." Thinking independently was "mortally dangerous," and "the last flicker of an individuality" is stamped out mercilessly. Under inhumane mental and physical tortures, the Party destroyed Winston’s coherent thinking by simply attacking and then shattering to pieces an undeniable and self-evident truth, so much cherished by Winston, to be able to say without fear that "two plus two make four," and altered his thinking permanently to the Party line that sometimes "two plus two make three" and sometimes it "makes five".

A major business magazine, Forbes (January 22, 1996, page 60) comments: "The student’s ignorance and inability to think, in even our best schools and colleges, means that they are ripe prey to demagogues - with the future of the country correspondingly jeopardised". The mental or physical pressures can alter one’s mind. The advertising industry, news and entertainment media constantly sway public "thinking," beliefs, and moods as their particular needs dictate, whatever they may be: consumerism, profits, novelty, or political aspirations, to name a few. They are only able to do so because most of the public does not have all the necessary facts to make an independent judgement.

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