I have now got the book “What is called thinking” by Martin Heidegger despite my qualms about his political history.I know he wrote it in German and hence a translation may give a different meaning so maybe my thoughts are not sensible….and my first thoughts are………….. it is fascinating title.He is looking at an activity that we humans do.He is asking what it is we do when we say we think.So before I read it I am putting a few reflections.Thinking means standing back,waiting and reflecting.Often we do things because our parents did or our friends.Then sometimes we wonder about our life,we pause and try to examine how we are living.Or we could be solving an intellectual problem.Some things like quadratic equations can be solved by a formula.And many people are happy just to perform this rote activity But even though its math,you are not thinking when you do that.And I have an intuition that we avoid thinking much of the time because we step outside our automatic patterns.I once read an article that says depression comes on us when we face a problem at the unconscious level.The tiredness,slowness and painful feelings make us withdraw and that gives our minds time to reflect.So there must also be unconscious thinking.Maybe that other mind uses images as in dreams.And we all know that “sleeping” on a problem often produces a solution.Thinking may not be verbal all of the time.And we must have something to think about.We must be participating in the world of Others.Language comes via others.We are part of a society…at first just a few family members.But our tongue is shared with many people.And when we think in words,those words came before us and go on after us.
Related articles
- Martin Heidegger – Leon (talonsphilosophy.wordpress.com)
- Thinking is a lonely business (thefword.org.uk)
- Adorno on Heidegger (leiterreports.typepad.com)
- Dasein, The Second Coming and The Nature of God: High Gravity Pt. 2 (Heidegger) (garretmenges.wordpress.com)
- The Process of Art and Ideas (digitalmediatheory.wordpress.com)
- Humans, Machines, but do Plants have souls? (digitalmediatheory.wordpress.com)
- Thinking on Thursday about: (thedawnmcmillan.com)
How my heart sings 
Principle: “question everything”
This action manifests for self in a state of liberty from conformity.
Your own.
Observe nature and you can build personal principles based on what you see in nature.
Worked for Heraclitus, Aristotle and Leonardo da Vinci… works for me too.
Nature = plants, animals, rocks, forces, stars, atoms…
Heraclitus: “Strife is Justice” meaning that strife is a natural aspect of nature, including human history, and through strife things move, change and exist. Peace is a human delusion, so is balance.
Thinking is good, which is why I suggest the individual questions everything, everything they see, hear and read, to their own beliefs, behaviors and experiences.
Accepting a claim without question as true is ignorance.
I am glad you liked my blog, thanks for visiting.