I really believe in being a thoughtful person and thinking for myself. I highly value independent and original thought and divergent thinking.
It’s partly my natural tendency to be thoughtful, but also, being raised as an “un-schooler”, I was encouraged to be curious and to think for myself. I was encouraged to study what I felt passionate about and to ask questions in general (And to seek the answers out myself. My parents were always telling me to go get an Encyclopedia!). The responsibility I was given for my own education and for forming my own viewpoints and the lack of graded evaluation definitely fostered divergent thinking. For those unfamiliar with un-schooling, it is basically unstructured home-schooling that is student led. The idea behind it is that children are naturally wired to learn and if they are allowed to follow their own bent, they will learn how to teach themselves and be able to apply that skill to any subject and throughout their life.
The ownership for myself which I was given as an un-schooler and my own natural bent for being thoughtful has led me to be very committed to thinking for myself and taking responsibility for my own life and how I live it. I consider that endeavor an integral part of making the most of my life. This is part of why I studied philosophy in college, hoping to further my thinking abilities. As, since I was committed to thinking for myself, I wanted to develop my logic and reasoning skills to a high degree. Indeed, I believe those are such valuable skills for living life the best I can and stewarding the life I have. And it’s just a bit of how I’m wired. So yeah… I’m a bit of a logic geek. And I am very intentional and thoughtful about my life. Perhaps too much so sometimes.
But also, especially as a Christian with my own personal convictions and yet who grew up exposed to Christian culture, I’ve made a point of being aware of my self-serving bias that I have as a human being, which will subconsciously seek to reaffirm my own adopted viewpoints. As, while this self-serving bias is part of what makes the world and all its possibilities not be overwhelming to us, it’s also part of what can make us close minded (And trying not to be close minded can indeed be quite overwhelming!).
My lifelong faith in Jesus is also part of why I studied philosophy particularly at a secular university, as I wanted to allow my beliefs and experiences to be thoroughly challenged. Which is an experience which was indeed uncomfortable and overwhelming at times… but it was also an incredibly rich and valuable experience which I would not trade in. As another way to challenge the validity and authenticity of my own beliefs, in my personal time outside of college I’ve also studied cults and mind control and propaganda and emotional and narcissistic abuse… trying to ensure that I am indeed thinking and feeling as a free being as much as I can be. Simply because I feel obligated to myself and my integrity to do so in this one life I have to live.
So yeah. I am a huge fan of independent and original thought. This extends to my thoughts on other people as well: I champion people’s freedom to follow the dictates of their own conscience insofar as that does not harm another. I want people to be authentic. Even and sometimes especially if that means they will not look or think or speak or act like I do. I expect people to have different thoughts and feelings and opinions about things, because everyone is a different person and everyone lives a different life. I love this aspect of people. I love to be challenged and grow because of someone being different from me.
Also, as far as thinking, I super value intellectual humility. This is one of my biggest take aways from studying philosophy: we really don’t– and can’t even– know as much as we think we know. We don’t have “knowledge” as much as we have current understandings. I’m sure I’ll write more about that in some of my other writings, as I feel like it is such a interesting concept and frees us for wonder. And wonder is such a cool thing.
Anyhow, that’s a bit of how I feel about thinking. Or… is it how I think about thinking?