THINKING

Three Types of Thinking, Theory and Practice

Expanding Dooyeweerd's ideas, Roy Clouser, in his book THe Myth of Religious Neutrality; An Essay on the Hidden Role of religious Belief in Theories (1991, Univ. of Notre Dame Press), highlighted three types of thinking that are involved in all our ways of functioning in the aspects:

v  Everyday thinking (and acting, living) - integrated and often tacit

v  Lower abstraction - awareness of distinct aspects around us

v  Higher abstraction - scientific or theoretical thinking

Types of Thinking

Here is a summary table comparing the three ways of thinking. The text is below.

Type of Thinking	Link to Context?	Isolated?	Aspects?	Useful in ..	Can use ..
Everyday Thinking	Yes	No	Tacit	Practice: Intervening in real-life situations; Doing.	Lower Abstraction
Lower Abstraction	Yes	No	Aware	Understanding situations; reflecting on situations, problems, etc. Decision support. 'Research' into situations.	Theories derived from higher abstraction. Also experience from everyday thinking.
Higher Abstraction	No	Yes	Isolated	Understanding laws; Scientific research to discover laws and express them as theories.	Data from aspectually-constrained situation

DEVELOP THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING - THINK THE RIGHT THOUGHTS.

There are many techniques that I have come across to do this. Some of the most practical are:

• Expose your mind to the right things.

• Watch the right movies.

• Listen to the right music.

• Read the right books.

• Associate with the right people.

Stay away from negative people – they will drain you of your energy and drag you down with them. Avoid them like the plague.

Thinking right is not a quick-fix process. You cannot change 20 year old habits in one week. You should not attempt to. It will frustrate you. Start slowly. Before long, it will become a habit to think right. Don’t get discouraged if you struggle a little with it. It takes time. It is a lifelong process. It is a way of life. It only ends when you die. Persevere.

Anything that is not in harmony with your dreams and desires – throw it out. Weed it out of your mind. Continually work at it and you will develop a beautiful mind. You will develop a mind that will deliver to you the power of positive thinking and all the lovely things that go with it.

"Your thoughts are the architects of your destiny".

David O. McKay