Thinking and learning to think

by Nathan Christ Schaeffer

When the doubt is raised in regard to the verities of one’s religious faith there is grave danger of landing in scepticism or infidelity. What is truth? may be asked in the spirit of Pilate, who turned away from the Great Teacher with a despairing sneer and without waiting for a reply. Pilate had trifled with his own conscience until he could no longer discern truth and righteousness. Some men need better hearts in order that they may think and know the highest truth. The hope can be held out that whenever the truth is earnestly sought by the human heart the soul will ultimately be guided into a knowledge of the truth. To disturb the grounds upon which rest the principles of morality and religion is a dangerous experiment, especially in the case of immature minds. The flood of doubt may sweep away the solid foundations of a pupil’s moral nature and leave him a wreck upon the quicksands of vice or upon the rock of scepticism.

It is the nature of the child to believe, to cherish faith in what others tell him and in what the world presents to his vision. To disturb the fervor and strength of this trust before the understanding is ripe for fuller knowledge may result in life-long injury. The child’s faith in fairyland, in Santa-Claus, should, of course, be kept from becoming a source of terror. The stories of ghosts, spooks, and hobgoblins sometimes employed in the nursery to influence conduct may cause fears, terrors, and horrors from which it is well to emancipate the child as speedily as possible through the light of clearer knowledge.

The desire to know.

Better than doubt as a stimulus to thought is the desire to know. St. Augustine was on fire to know. The teacher who kindles and keeps burning this fire in the soul of the pupil has supplied the most powerful incentive to thought; for without thinking knowledge is impossible of attainment.

Full cognition.

As we may start our wood flaming by coals hot from another’s fire, so we may kindle a burning desire for knowledge by bringing the mind in contact with minds that are all aglow with the desire to know. A burning fire may soon exhaust its fuel if left to itself. The teacher supplies the fuel, fans the flame, directs its activity for well-defined purposes. Here the analogy breaks. Instead of smoke and ashes we want living products as the result of knowing. As thinking leads to knowing, so knowing should give rise to further thinking. Nowhere is the teacher’s function of guiding more indispensably necessary than in the interplay of these two activities. While the learner is engrossed in the pursuit of knowledge, the teacher is watching the process and the results. He is not satisfied unless the activity of thinking and knowing ends in full cognition. It has been well said that a dog knows his master, but does not cognize him; that to cognize means to refer a perception to an object by means of a conception. The objects of thought must be sorted and arranged in groups; the particular notion must take its place in the general concept; the materials upon which the mind acts must be assimilated and organized into a unity, showing how each has its origin and how it stands in living relation to every other part of the organic whole; otherwise thinking cannot lead to complete cognition.

The limit of instruction.

The incident at the beginning of this chapter shows that some preparation is necessary to interpret sense-impressions and organize the materials of thought for the purpose of cognition. The degree of preparation determines how far the instruction at a given time shall aim to go. To get a clearer idea of the thing to be known may exhaust the learner’s strength. If so, the presentation should stop at that point. But as soon as his power and interest are equal to the task he should be led to analyze the object of thought so as to cognize the constituent elements, the essential attributes, a process whereby he will arrive at distinct knowledge. It may be advisable before dropping the inquiry to institute comparisons between objects of the same class, for the purpose of calling attention to differences and likenesses and evolving general concepts or universal propositions. For many thinkers these are the goal of thinking. If they can resolve the universe to a few simple generalizations, their minds are satisfied. Nothing more barren can well be imagined or conceived.

Application of knowledge.