“The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” by Francisco Goya (Los Caprichos, #43, 1799)
The descriptive sub-title of this blog—Against Professional Philosophy—originally created and rolled out in 2013, is “A Co-Authored Anarcho-Philosophical Diary.”
Now, ten years later, after more than 350,000 views of the site, this series, A Philosopher’s Diary, finally literally instantiates that description by featuring short monthly entries by one or another of the members of the APP circle, in order to create an ongoing collective philosophical diary that records the creative results of critical, synoptic, systematic rational reflection on any philosophical topic or topics under the sun, without any special restrictions as to content, format, or length.
In this fifteenth installment, Otto Paans formulates a list of 36 rules for good thinking.
PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS
#1 Changing Social Institutions From Without Or Within
#4 Respect For Choices vs. Respect For Persons
#5 Thirty-Six Philosophical Precepts of Martial Arts Practice
#6 Enlightenment, Education, and Inspiration
#7 Rigged and Lucky: The Myth of Meritocracy in Professional Academic Philosophy
#9 How Much Does The Chatbot Brouhaha Affect Anarcho-Philosophical Teaching and Learning?
#10 Neoliberalism, Higher Education, and Faculty as Mental Health “First Responders”
#11 There’s Nothing…And Everything
#12.1 Philosophy and Flow States, Part 1—Real Philosophy and Professional Academic Philosophy
#12.2 Philosophy and Flow States, Part 2—Integrated Flow States and Philosophy as a Way of Life
#13 Cosmos and Care: Reflections on Self-Cultivation
#14 ChatGPT, High-Tech Plagiarism, and The Neoliberal University
Rules For Thinking
What is good thinking? Perhaps we will never know. Thinking is not the same as arguing, although arguments in some form or the other often play a role in it. Likewise, thinking is not the same as philosophy, although it is a necessary condition for doing philosophy. Apart from these two (admittedly negative) characterizations, it is hard to put into words what thinking is.
Nevertheless, some thinking practices and guidelines often lead to good results. I compiled a list of rules that I use when thinking. They are surprisingly hard to follow, but I have had good results with them. It should be emphasized that thinking is essentially embodied. If you use your body differently, your mind will start functioning differently and usually more effectively. Like any activity, thinking is a practice that can be cultivated and trained. Hence these rules can also be read as a “personal cultivation manual.”
1. Having thoughts is not the same thing as thinking.
2. When it does not come naturally to you, stop forcing it.
3. Never have negative conversations inside your head.
4. Do not worry—the future will come to you all by itself.
5. Observe your mind closely. A lot more goes on in it than you think.
6. Pay attention. Even the most mundane situation contains more than meets the eye.
7. Catch yourself when you are repeating old, worn-out thought-shaping patterns
8. Do not aim for perfection. It paralyzes.
9. Sleep and do not take the worries of the day into the night.
10. Fast intermittently—it will sharpen your mind.
11. Stand still, sit still, and do nothing. Only then will you feel what does happen in your body. This is amazingly difficult.
12. Realize that you are always in control of your thinking, even if it does not feel that way.
13. Learn to observe yourself and others.
14. Change media. When typing does not work, write. When writing does not work, speak. When speaking does not work, draw. When drawing does not work, move.
15. Let things rest. They will come back again.
16. Experience and habit are not the same. Good experience is knowing when you have to let go of habit.
17. No idea, drawing, project, or text, is perfect in a single attempt. Let them grow and develop.
18. Trust the facts without being imprisoned by them.
19. We are naturally curious, but we hate change. Be aware of those two qualities when thinking.
20. Follow your initial thinking inclinations. There is time enough to revisit them.
21. Look forward to making mistakes.
22. Don’t argue too quickly. Let even the most paradoxical idea fascinate you. There will be time to argue later on. And if that time never comes, that is also fine.
23. Become fascinated. To be fascinated is a skill that can be learned just as riding a bike.
24. Many of the skills passed off as competences are tricks. Many of the capabilities that we don’t usually regard as skills can be trained, nurtured, and developed.
25. To think is to move. Never stay for long in one place.
26. Do not overthink and overanalyze. This is the just part of your brain that hates change stopping you.
27. Take time to meditate. A spring cannot always be coiled and tense.
28. It’s better to have an interesting failure than a predictable success.
29. The art of re-inventing yourself is the most underestimated skill in thinking
30. Do a single thing well and pay attention to it—it will grow into an end-in-itself.
31. You can cultivate and shape your thinking, just as you can cultivate your garden.
32. Always question whether your reliance on “experience” is just an excuse for repeating past behavior.
33. Do not aim for developing experience but accumulate experiences. Experience is a result, not a goal.
34. Change categories. See skills as properties, properties as attitudes, attitudes as acts, and acts as objects.
35. Talk to yourself in the second and third person. Dissociate occasionally.
36. Think critically about this list of rules at regular intervals, and consider making additions or revisions to it.
Against Professional Philosophy is a sub-project of the online mega-project Philosophy Without Borders, which is home-based on Patreon here.
Please consider becoming a patron!
