The Science of Thinking

1. The Science of Thinking How to Use Your Brain…

2. The Power of the Brain • Sitting on top of your shoulders is one of the greatest computers ever created! • But, even as powerful as it is, if you want to get it to work for you, if you want it to be really strong, just like every other muscle in the body, it needs exercise. • That exercise is called THINKING!

3. First, what do I want to figure out: what is my question? Second, why do I want to figure it out: what is my purpose? Third, what am I taking for granted about it: what are my assumptions? Fourth, how am I looking at my question: what is my point of view? Fifth, am I looking at all the evidence: do I have enough information? Sixth, do I understand what ideas are involved: do I know the concepts? Seventh, what inferences am I making: what are my conclusions? Eighth, what are the implications of my question: what will be the consequences? The Exercise of Thinking has rules…

4. A “real – life” question: • You are driving home from a friend’s house all by yourself. • It is very late at night and you are very tired. All you want to do is get home and fall into bed. • Suddenly, your car starts to shake and shimmy and there’s a funny noise in the back. • “Oh, God,” you scream, “what’s wrong now?”

5. The Answer to the Question • You stop the car, get out and walk around. • In the back, in the rear on the driver side, your car is leaning very close to the ground. • “Oh no!” you say, "It's a flat tire"

6. Why do you want to know? • You have to know what’s wrong so you can fix it and keep going. • You do not want to spend the night out in the middle of nowhere. • All you want to do is go home and go to S l e e p ! That is your only PURPOSE

7. What do you assume? • Something has made a hole in your tire… • It probably is a nail or a screw, maybe even a broken bottle. • It really doesn’t matter what did it, because you also assume that if you don’t fix the flat tire, you are not going to get home and go to S l e e p !

8. What is your point of view? • This one is really easy! • You are all by yourself, out in the middle of nowhere. • If you don’t fix the flat tire, then no one else will…

9. What information do you have? • The tire is flat, there is no question about that. • The tire is not going to fix itself! • To fix it, you need a working jack to raise the car, a wrench to get the tire off and a spare tire full of air to replace the flat one. • You look in the trunk and they’re all there. • You have information that you have what you need to correct the situation. Good!

10. What concepts are involved here? • The ideas are these: • 1. A car can’t run on a flat tire. • 2. There is no one to help you fix the flat. • The tire is not going to fix itself. • You’d better get to work. Like right now!

11. What inferences do you make? • You infer that some sharp object has put a hole in your tire, making it go flat. • You infer that if you do not fix the tire, you are not going to get home tonight. • You conclude that you had better fix the flat so you can go home and get some S l e e p !

12. What are the consequences? • If you don’t fix the tire, you will have a very unpleasant night out in the boondocks. • So you decide to fix the tire ASAP and go home and go to bed to get a good night’s S l e e p !

13. There’s much more to think about… • Certainly, there are many more things to think about and a lot of them need much more thought than a no-brainer like a flat tire. It was just a simple example. • Why has Mexico had two revolutions? • What is the Theory of Relativity all about? • Should public school students have to wear uniforms to school? • What you need to do is apply the rules we just went over to anything you want to think about in depth to analyze it properly.