“I think, therefore I am,” the famous formulation of René Descartes, is the foundation principle of Western philosophy. Thinking is uniquely human. It defines us as a species – Homo sapiens, the thinking human.
Thinking requires no instructions for any of us, yet author and technology philosopher Tom Chatfield believes we can be trained to think better and more effectively.
In How to Think, he explores what it means to think well, and he shares his ideas on the nature of understanding and the joy of creativity. How to Think is a follow-up to his bestselling textbook Critical Thinking, both from SAGE Publishing.
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Even when so many voices on the Web telling us differently, Chatfield believes we can be trained to think more effectively for ourselves.
“I think the digital age is profoundly important because of the enormous resources we have at our fingertips. I guess one of the most obvious things it does is it gives us options to find information at very high speed, but also tremendous seductions and temptations,” he tells me.
“On the positive side, and it’s a huge positive, these same resources give us access to a diversity of others’ perspectives and to a diversity of perspectives through which we can triangulate and push back against our own limitations.”