How should we think?

As a rational existence, thinking constitutes the fundamental feature that distinguishes people from other animals. People understand thinking as thinking about specific things. In fact, this is also the understanding of thinking by ordinary people. When I say "thinking" here, I don't mean this kind of thinking, but thinking about myself. What the hell does this mean? In fact, people can easily distinguish between "I think about something" and "I think about how I think about something". The former takes "something" as the object of my thinking, while the latter takes "how do I think about something" as the object of my thinking. What I want to talk about is the latter kind of thinking, which is actually a critical investigation of the way of thinking in people's daily life. ""is the result of critical reflection on people's daily way of thinking, which will develop step by step in the following three aspects. What is effective thinking If we look at human thinking from a useful perspective, human thinking can be divided into two types: one is "ineffective thinking"; The second is "effective thinking". The former refers to thinking that does not produce positive effects, while the latter refers to thinking that produces positive effects. From the common sense, everyone pursues effective thinking, but in daily life, there are indeed a lot of invalid thinking. For example, many physicists are committed to the conception and manufacture of perpetual motion machines, but according to Helmholtz's law of conservation of energy, perpetual motion machines cannot exist at all. So any idea of being a perpetual motion machine is actually invalid thinking. If we pay a little attention, we will find that the theme of many literary works is satire and condemnation of invalid thinking. For example, Ob Lomov, written by Russian novelist Goncharov, wears pajamas from morning till night and conceives various plans to transform his farm in his mind. However, because he never put it into practice, all these mental jobs are doomed to be ineffective. For another example, the well-known fable "The Milkman" is also a vivid criticism of invalid thinking. A girl walked to the market with a can of milk on her head. Her imagination began to work quickly: she sold milk and bought chickens in the market. When the chickens grow up, they hatch eggs. She sold eggs and bought chickens ... and she became the richest girl in the village. At the party, the most handsome boy in the village invited her to dance, and she extended her hand with a milk can to him. As a result, the milk can fell off, the milk spilled all over the floor, and the daydream disappeared. Everything is empty. Under normal circumstances, people will try to avoid invalid thinking and pursue effective thinking. So, how can we make our thinking effective? In my opinion, we should establish the following six kinds of consciousness. We should not only abide by the rules, but also know how to change. The ancients in China called the rules or norms they believed in (including moral norms of course) "Jing" and the flexibility in specific situations "Quan". If a person only keeps the scriptures, he will not change under unpredictable specific circumstances, and his way of thinking is dogmatic; On the contrary, if a person doesn't believe in any classics, he will only change under certain circumstances, and his way of thinking is opportunistic. Legal consciousness borrows the English term law here, because law has two different meanings: one is "law", such as the law of nature, the law of social development and the law of market economy operation. These laws exist objectively, and people can only find them, but not create them; The other is "law", which is a basic principle that people make (create) by themselves and must abide by. In Chinese, we can't find words corresponding to the above two meanings, so we have to use the word law. People must be soberly aware that the external world that their thinking deals with is regular; Similarly, their thinking deals with interpersonal relationships (including the relationship between people and things, the relationship between things, etc. ) restricted by law. Only when their thinking follows the laws of the outside world and interpersonal relationships can they achieve the expected results. As far as natural laws are concerned, such as the law of gravity, a person who can't swim will be drowned if he falls into deep water. If anyone's mind tries to compete with this law, the result will be bad. As far as the law of social development is concerned, it is an irreversible historical trend for modern democratic society to replace traditional authoritarian society. However, Yuan Shikai was determined to go against the historical trend and restore the throne, only to die in begging for Yuan. Situational awareness, comparatively speaking, "law" is the most fundamental norm formulated by human beings, and it must be observed even if it disagrees. Although the "rules" or "norms" promulgated by the government, organizations, units or companies do not have the rigidity of law, they also have important binding force on people's thoughts and behaviors. The so-called "situation" refers to all kinds of special situations that people may encounter in their lives. Once such a situation is encountered, people should learn to be flexible, proceed from special circumstances, and be flexible with the "rules" or "norms" they usually believe in. In this sense, situational awareness is also flexible perception. The ancients in China called the rules or norms they believed in (including moral norms, of course) "Jing" and the flexibility in specific situations "Right", thus understanding the unity of "Jing" and "Right" as the principle that effective thinking must abide by. For example, although Confucianism advocates "men and women don't kiss" (classic), that is, men and women can't touch each other physically, if a woman falls into the river and a man passes by, of course, she must reach out and pull her up (right). It is pedantic for this man to stick to the rules and not change his original intention. In fact, the story of "carving a boat for a sword" recorded in Lv Chunqiu Chajin and the story of "waiting for a rabbit" recorded in Han Feizi's Notes on Wu are all ancient people's mockery of this rigid way of thinking that lacks situational awareness. In unpredictable daily life, this flexible situational awareness plays a very important role in effective thinking. The correct way of thinking is to dialectically combine "Jing" (principle) with "Right" (flexibility). We should not only know the role, but also be good at empathy, be good at affirming the advantages of others, be good at caring about what others are thinking, and be good at solving the difficulties faced by others. The final result must be "win-win". In a sense, the sense of empathy is also a supplement to the sense of role. Role consciousness According to the sociological point of view, everyone plays different roles in social life, and for the same person, he plays different roles in different situations. For example, a middle-aged man is the general manager of his company; To his wife, he is a husband; To his son, he is the father; He is a member of the bridge club. Because of the richness of his social life, he may also play other social roles. This man should understand that if his thinking is to be effective in different situations, he must think in strict accordance with the roles in different situations and never confuse different roles in different situations. There is a simple reason. If he applies the way the general manager treats his subordinates to his wife or son, then nothing will fail. People with empathy are social animals. A considerable part of human thinking involves communication with others. How to make the desire of communication achieve the expected effect? The importance of empathy is self-evident. We know that under normal circumstances, a person's thinking always starts with "I". However, in daily life, especially in the thinking of seeking communication with others, this self-centered way of thinking is almost ineffective. Why? Because everyone is like a black box. When a person associates with others, it seems that the distance between them is so close that you can reach out and touch them. However, when two people don't know each other, the actual distance between them is very far away, just like two black boxes, everyone can't see through each other. In this case, it is almost impossible for any party to make demands on the other party and be accepted by the other party. Only empathy can really narrow the distance between two people. The so-called "transposition consciousness" means that one party takes the initiative to think from the other party's position, and even gives ideas to help the other party solve the problems he faces. In this way, the two sides have established an emotional connection, and the other side is willing to help the requester solve the problem. In daily life, if a person can not only keep conscious role consciousness, but also put himself in others' shoes, then invalid thinking will never follow him. To understand the risks and express the so-called "expression consciousness" is to express the thought that has been considered accurately and reasonably through language. The "reasonable" here means that we should take the overall situation into account everywhere when expressing, and we should not ignore the opposite tendency because we emphasize one tendency. The so-called "risk" of risk awareness refers to all kinds of unexpected dilemmas, crises and dangers in human life. We can roughly divide risks into three categories: the first category is natural disasters, the second category is social disasters, and the third category is the danger of personal life. The Sword of Damocles vividly enlightens us that our personal life is always under the threat of death. China people say: "If you are not afraid of 10,000, you are afraid of one thousand"; He also said: "There are unexpected events in the sky, and people have unexpected events." What he is worried about is the sudden unexpected risk. However, it is this sense of risk that is lacking in daily thinking, especially in the daily thinking of young people who have never suffered from life. People are used to equating "logical possibility" with "possibility in life". The so-called "logical possibility", that is, the possibility in the ideal state, as for the "possibility in life", it is completely another matter, because life is full of unexpected risks. Only by firmly establishing risk awareness can we deal with all kinds of accidents. China people say: "People are not as good as the sky"; He also said: "A hundred secrets are sparse." People's thinking, reasoning and planning, even if very rigorous, can not take all possible accidents into account. The Book of Rites, The Doctrine of the Mean, tells us: "If everything is prepared, it will be established, and if it is not prepared, it will be abolished." Only by taking precautions and establishing risk awareness can we leave enough room in the planning to ensure that our ideas achieve the expected results. As we all know, thinking is based on language. On the one hand, thinking must be carried out through language; On the other hand, thinking must be expressed through language. In a sense, only in expression can thinking become a reality. We can only understand a person's thinking according to his language expression. In this sense, we can also regard expression as a part of thinking and express consciousness as an important link of effective thinking. What I mean by "expressing consciousness" here is to express the thought that has been considered accurately and reasonably through language. According to my understanding, "accurate" here has two meanings: on the one hand, it means that the exact place must be accurate, on the other hand, it means that the ambiguous place must be ambiguous. "Fair and reasonable" means that we should take into account the overall situation everywhere in our expression, and don't ignore the opposite tendency because we emphasize one tendency. Otherwise, it may not only lead to invalid thinking, but also secretly make an issue with others. Carnegie told an interesting story in his book: One day, American industrialist Rockefeller visited a factory he owned and found three young workers smoking under the "No Smoking" sign. If Rockwell goes up and scolds them, or even fires them, it's not outrageous. But Rockwell didn't do it. He smiled and walked up to three young workers, took out cigars from his pocket and gave each one. He smiled and said, "Boys, if you smoke in the smoking room, I will thank you." Three young workers left happily. A tense conflict was resolved by Rockwell's reasonable expression. Since thinking can only be expressed through language, paying attention to expressing consciousness is the proper meaning in the title. If you don't pay attention to language expression, the expected effect of thinking will be greatly reduced. It is good to learn to ask questions and criticize dialectics. If a person has a high probability of effective thinking in daily life, it does not mean that he has reached the realm of creative thinking. Creative thinking includes effective thinking, but it can't be attributed to effective thinking, because you need higher wisdom to use your thinking creatively. In my opinion, creative thinking is not unattainable. If people consciously establish the following four kinds of consciousness, they can not only approach, but even completely enter this way of thinking. Learning consciousness According to my opinion, "learning" has two forms: one is narrow sense, that is, studying at school; The other is broad, including all forms of learning to acquire knowledge, information and feelings. What I mean by "learning consciousness" is learning in a broad sense, that is, lifelong learning. It is never too old to learn. The reason why I emphasize learning consciousness so much here is because learning consciousness is the premise of creative thinking. Only by respecting the achievements of predecessors and contemporaries can we innovate on the basis of these achievements. In a word, we should think on the shoulders of our predecessors and contemporaries, not without them. Otherwise, what's the difference between creative thinking and paranoia? As mentioned above, it is very important to establish learning consciousness, especially lifelong learning consciousness. But if you only have the desire to learn and never question what you have learned, such learning is useless. It can be said that the soul of learning consciousness is problem consciousness. Whether observing natural phenomena or exploring social and historical phenomena; Whether reading the text or listening to other people's lectures, there will always be some doubts (problems) rising from our hearts. In fact, these problems are the most precious things in people's hearts. It is said that in Freud's study, Augustine's famous saying hangs: "If you doubt, ask at once." In fact, the word "learning" advocated by China people includes both the word "learning" and the word "asking". No problem, no learning! Therefore, question consciousness is indispensable for creative thinking. In a sense, the more basic and important the new question is, the stronger the creative ability of the proposer and the more far-reaching the influence. In short, the importance of problem awareness is self-evident. Learning without doubt or wondering without doubt is like adding countless zeros together and the result is still zero. Question consciousness is a bridge to creative thinking. Critical Consciousness If learning consciousness lays the foundation for creative thinking, then critical consciousness is to clean up the foundation itself. We can even understand "criticism" as creation in a negative sense. Philosophical criticism, in particular, is very profound because it directly appeals to the theoretical presupposition of a viewpoint or even an ideological system. For example, in A Brief History of Chinese Philosophy, Mr. Feng Youlan mentioned a short story of Zen Buddhism: a witty young monk spat on the Buddha's face in front of the old monk. The old monk accused him, and he replied plausibly, "Master, didn't you say that Buddha is everywhere?" In this case, no matter where I vomit, I will vomit on the Buddha. Might as well just throw up in his face. "Here, the young monk's rebuttal goes straight to the theoretical presupposition of the old monk's concept-Buddhism is everywhere. Although the emphasis on "Buddha is everywhere" fully affirmed the boundless magic of Buddha, it also brought a lot of trouble to Buddha. In fact, the dialectics of life is: raising someone must also include contempt for someone, because the person being raised must stand in a very low position before being raised; Similarly, demeaning a person must also include respecting a person, because a demeaning person must stand on the commanding heights before being demeaned. In short, critical consciousness is like tearing down the old buildings on the base. The more thoroughly the old buildings are torn down, the more reliable the new buildings will be and the greater the scope of creative thinking will be. Reverse consciousness in daily life, people's thinking can usually only take into account one dimension, and consciously or unconsciously cover up the opposite dimension. In this case, reverse consciousness often reveals the hidden opposite dimension, thus injecting new thinking opportunities. For example, S, who lives in the same dormitory, said to T, "Close the screen window quickly and don't let mosquitoes fly in. "s words show that he only considered one dimension of the problem, that is, not letting mosquitoes fly in, but did not consider the other opposite dimension of the problem at all: how can mosquitoes fly out of the room when the screen window is closed? In fact, the story of "gilding the lily" recorded in "Warring States Policy Chess Strategy II" is an example of turning a correct result into a mistake. In short, reverse consciousness requires people's thinking not to be confined to a corner, but to jump to different endpoints flexibly, thus opening up a new way for thinking. Reverse consciousness often creates miracles in thinking. In fact, it is a special form of creative thinking. To sum up, creative thinking puts forward higher requirements than effective thinking, but creative thinking is not unattainable. Confucius said, "Learning without thinking is useless, and thinking without learning is dangerous. "As long as we are good at learning and diligent in thinking, creative thinking will come to us. In a sense, human beings live in two different worlds: one is the "world of daily life", which opens seven doors-rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea. People are busy planning their own survival and development, running around. However, there will be cracks in their survival sooner or later. For example, A becomes disabled in an accident, B's child suddenly gets leukemia, C is cheated by his partner in business, and D is mercilessly abandoned by his lover. In all these cracks, one that everyone can't avoid is death. In the world of daily life, people pursue wealth and power wholeheartedly and forget these hidden cracks around them. Once they suddenly appear at their feet, their thinking will go beyond the world of daily life and enter another world that I call "the meaning of life". In this world, people began to question themselves: "What's the point of my living? "Obviously, people's thinking about the meaning of life is beyond thinking. For ordinary people, their thinking is difficult to go beyond the level of thinking. Even if they leap to this level because of the gap in survival, they will soon return from "the world with life significance" to "