Thinking as a Science

by Henry Hazlitt

BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

CONTENTS

• I • The Neglect of Thinking • [1]
• II • Thinking With Method • [11]
• III • A Few Cautions • [51]
• IV • Concentration • [68]
• V • Prejudice and Uncertainty • [99]
• VI • Debate and Conversation • [129]
• VII • Thinking and Reading • [135]
• VIII • Writing One’s Thoughts • [191]
• IX • Things Worth Thinking About • [207]
• X • Thinking as an Art • [237]
• XI • Books on Thinking • [248]

THINKING AS A SCIENCE

I THE NEGLECT OF THINKING

EVERY man knows there are evils in the world which need setting right. Every man has pretty definite ideas as to what these evils are. But to most men one in par­tic­u­lar stands out vividly. To some, in fact, this stands out with such startling vividness that they lose sight of other evils, or look upon them as the natural consequences of their own par­tic­u­lar evil-in-chief.

To the Socialist this evil is the capitalistic sys­tem; to the pro­hi­bi­tion­ist it is in­tem­per­ance; to the feminist it is the sub­jec­tion of women; to the clergyman it is the decline of religion; to Andrew Carnegie it is war; to the staunch Re­pub­li­can it is the Demo­cratic Party, and so on, ad infinitum.

I, too, have a pet little evil, to which in more passionate moments I am apt to attribute all the others. This evil is the neglect of thinking. And when I say thinking I mean real thinking, in­de­pen­dent thinking, hard thinking.

You protest. You say men are thinking more now than they ever were. You bring out the almanac to prove by statistics that illiteracy is declining. You point to our magnificent libraries. You point to the multiplication of books. You show beyond a doubt that people are reading more now than ever before in all history. . . .

Very well, exactly. That is just the trouble. Most people, when confronted with a problem, immediately acquire an inordinate desire to “read-up” on it. When they get stuck mentally, the first thing such people do is to run to a book. Confess it, have you not often been in a waiting room or a Pullman, noticed people all about you reading, and finding yourself without any reading matter, have you not wished that you had some?—something to “occupy your mind”? And did it ever occur to you that you had within you the power to occupy your mind, and do it more profitably than all those assiduous readers? Briefly, did it ever occur to you to think?