THINK BETTER UNLOCKING THE POWER OF REASON ULRICH L. LEHNER K (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 3 6/3/21 8:31 AM © 2021 by Ulrich L. Lehner Published by Baker Academic a division of Baker Publishing Group PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakeracademic.com Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Lehner, Ulrich L., 1976– author. Title: Think better : unlocking the power of reason / Ulrich L. Lehner. Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021017456 | ISBN 9781540964762 (paperback) | ISBN 9781540964779 (casebound) | ISBN 9781493433452 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Thought and thinking. | Reasoning. | Knowledge, Theory of. Classification: LCC B105.T54 L44 2021 | DDC 153.4/2—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021017456 Scripture quotations are from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 4 6/3/21 8:31 AM Contents Introduction: Empowering Minds 000 1. Knowledge Is the Basis of Good Reasoning 000 Knowledge Is Conversational How to Train Your Will, or When It Is Better to Shut Up 2. Have Realistic Goals and Humility 000 Knowing Always Desires Truth Knowledge and Incompetence Knowledge Is Not Piecemeal but Holistic 3. The Power of Reason and Eternity 000 Where Do We Find Natural Laws? Laws Are Ghosts from Another World 4. Knowing Yourself Is the Key to Logical Thinking 000 The Principle of Identity Becoming Mindful of Your Surroundings Objects Teach Us about Reality Finding Relationships between Objects Nothingness Is Your Invention 5. Good Thinking Is Always Focused 000 My Thinking Is Not Identical with Brain Events Thinking Is Not Feeling Thinking Abstract Things Order for Our Thinking: Genus and Species v (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 5 6/3/21 8:31 AM vi Think Better Our Mind Is Not Inventing “Justice” The Tools of Thinking Are Analysis and Synthesis Beware of Bad Comparisons and Analogies 6. Critical Thinking 000 Be Active and Not Passive Cutting through Nonsense You Know What Is Good Evidence Trust Is Not Uncritical Distrust and Illiteracy Are the Problems! Overcoming Confirmation Bias 7. Without Order There Is No Good Reasoning 000 A Grid Brings Order Thinking Coherently Takes Effort 8. Ignorance Is Not Bliss 000 Ignorance as a Moral Weakness Better Thinking Can Save Our Failing Society Overcoming Ignorance Drives Innovation 9. Real Thinking Sets You Free 000 Freedom and Reason Need Each Other Is My Experience of Freedom Reliable? Save Your Freedom by Thinking Freedom Is More Than Choice The Pinnacle of Freedom Is Forgiveness 10. Thinking Happens in a Soul, Not a Computer 000 Don’t Get Robbed of Your First-Person Experience Your Brain Is Not a Computer Immaterial Matter and the Soul Can Matter Produce Mind? Personal Identity and Soul 11. Majority Rules Don’t “Make” Truth 000 The Principle of Noncontradiction Can I Be a Skeptic? How Many Does It Take? (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 6 6/3/21 8:31 AM Contents vii 12. Real Thinking Discovers Causes 000 The Classic Four Causes Do Things Just Pop into Existence? Coming into Existence Needs a Cause Do Things Pop out of Existence? Potency and Change 13. Thinking about Goods, Values, and Morality 000 Emotions Are Not about Truth The Rational Foundation of Morality 14. Thinking Saves Lives 000 Intentional Perception Disputing Irrational Beliefs 15. Empathy Is Achieved by Hard Thinking 000 Walking in Somebody Else’s Shoes Self-Awareness Is Needed for Empathy Thinking about Emotions 16. Leadership, Values, and Your Thoughts 000 Characteristics of Leadership Ubuntu as a Key to Moral Leadership Recognizing and Hearing the Other 17. Creative Thinking Is Not a Mystery 000 Divergence, Convergence, and Lateral Thinking Overcoming Mental Blocks How to Become Creative 18. Reasoning Helps Us Find Unity in a Divided World 000 Connectedness and Personhood Giving All a “Home” Unity in Diversity Notes 000 Index 000 (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 7 6/3/21 8:31 AM Introduction EMPOWERING MINDS A s you think, so shall you become.” The first time I read this quote that some attribute to Bruce Lee, I was struck by how profound it was. It captures the wisdom of ancient Eastern and Western philosophy alike that our life “is what our thoughts make it” (Marcus Aurelius, 121–80 CE).1 The way to more powerful and productive reasoning lies in using it to its fullest potential. For that purpose, we have to find out what reasoning is, how it works, and in what instances we can use it. By doing so, we will not only identify strategies to empower our minds but also begin to walk the path of philosophy and begin the search for wisdom. This quest is far from impractical because it enables us to become more focused in our work, find peace in our minds, and explore the hidden creativity of our souls. And believe me, I am speaking as someone who has found such empowerment. For almost all my adult life I have engaged with questions of knowledge and truth, philosophy here, philosophy there, but only last year did the power of reasoning really become clear to me. I sat in the chair of a psychologist’s office. He was evaluating a long list of tests I had taken for the last four hours. My eyes were fixed on 1 (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 9 6/3/21 8:31 AM 2 Think Better him when he finally looked up, smiled, and said, “Your intuition was right. You definitely have ADHD!” I was not surprised, and neither was my family, who had always suspected it. Nevertheless, what amazed me was how bad I was at doing commonplace things, such as paying attention and being able to listen to others. Yet how had I been able to become a renowned researcher with these deficits? My psychologist told me the answer: “Because you must have developed behaviors that compensate for your lack of attention. And these behaviors made you successful.” This revelation made me reflect on my life and how I had reached the point I was at now. What allowed me to function in the world I was in? How was I able to hold a position at one of America’s greatest universities? After a short time, I realized how I was able to cope. Since my earliest school days, I looked for behaviors that helped me control my ADHD impulses, without even knowing it. Suddenly it made sense why I found the rigorous routine of my old grandfather—including him wearing a tie every day until he was in his nineties—so impressive and worthy of imitation. I realized how I learned in church that rituals can structure your life and discipline your mind, and so on. Yet what seems to have been the most crucial influence was having been exposed to good reasoning, first at home and then at school. At my German high school, we read Plato and Aristotle in the original Greek in tenth grade! Ever since my teachers first gave me The Apology of Socrates by Plato, I was captivated by the power of reasoning and wanted to learn as much about it as I could. I was hooked! Philosophical reasoning empowered me to develop discipline not only in thinking but also in observing: I knew I could pay attention to details that fascinated me—as every person with ADHD can testify to—but philosophy allowed me to do it with a method. Don’t get me wrong—I had to work at least twice as hard as any other student to understand things I found boring, but I did it. Wrapping my head around geometry in high school was so stressful for me that even years later I had nightmares (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 10 6/3/21 8:31 AM Introduction 3 about it. Nevertheless, the tools of philosophy helped me to stay somewhat on course and not drift away completely every time something interesting popped into my head; they empowered me to navigate these difficult waters. I am convinced that the structure they provided me with was the key to my success in high school and beyond. I sometimes tell my doctoral students, “There were smarter students than me in the doctoral classes I took, yet they all lacked perseverance and structure. This is the real key to success.” Philosophical reasoning helped me to organize my mind, my studies, and my research. It empowered me to have a career that others were unable to achieve. I am living proof that ordering one’s thought leads to happiness. Reasoning not only helped me with my studies but also improved the quality of my life. Reasoning leads to joy. The joy of mastering something always reminds me of diving. Plunging into the ocean equipped with a wet suit, goggles, and an oxygen tank opens up a new world of hidden colors, fish, corals, and rocks. Philosophical thinking is very similar—it invites you to dive deep into the structure of things. Just like with diving, however, you need to have the proper equipment, some principles, and a map. In this book, I hope to show you that reason allows you to discover answers to questions such as, Who am I? What can I know? What is good? What can I hope for? Diving below is only one aspect of reasoning. The other is gaining perspective from above. I associate this with hiking in the mountains, probably because I grew up near the Alps. Not much compares to the feeling of accomplishment and awe when you have made it to the top. Adrenaline rushes through your body after the exhausting climb, your muscles ache, but once you see the landscape below, you lose yourself in the beauty in front of you. You see the different shades of snow around you, the vegetation along the mountainside, and far away the crystal waters of a lake. Only the jackdaws soaring in the thin air above you have a better view, seeing how even the mountaintop is connected to the landscape, (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 11 6/3/21 8:31 AM 4 Think Better seeing things as a whole. Philosophy tries to accomplish this as well, not just diving into the structure of the world but also putting it all in perspective, understanding how things hang together. It is the ultimate way of holistic thinking. Perhaps you are still not sure whether you want to continue with this book because it sounds too “brainy.” After all, what exactly do philosophers look for, and why would it be helpful for me to adopt some of their tools? Shouldn’t we instead imitate the hard sciences, which boast of their discoveries? But have you asked yourself what is at the beginning of a scientist’s work? You can’t just wake up one morning and decide to find a cure for cancer; you have to have a plan. You have to begin by making an observation, asking a question, forming a hypothesis, testing it, and so forth. What is it that makes the scientist ask the question in the first place? Humans desire to know not just facts, but the whatness of things, their inner reasons and causes. We want to know what this or that type of cancer is, how it develops and why, or why and how a plant produces this or that enzyme if it could also survive without it. This drive to know the whatness of the world moves us to dive into the structure of the world and examine the characteristics of something. And thus, the scientist also begins with philosophical questions and assumptions: By arranging a lab experiment, I have already made the philosophical assumption that I can trust my senses, that I am able to correctly assess the world outside my brain and thus can read the lab instruments properly. Moreover, I base my whole experiment on the assumption that the aspect of the world I have in my lab is intelligible and discoverable. Once we begin to see that every search for knowledge is based on certain underlying assumptions, we can start to examine and question what our other assumptions are—for example, what we believe politically—and thus are better able to understand those who disagree with us. Only if I gain insight into my own beliefs will I be able to also look rationally at another person’s perspective. I will also discover which of my beliefs are irrational, which (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 12 6/3/21 8:31 AM Introduction 5 ones weigh me down and keep me from becoming the person I want to be. This will help me to express my thoughts in an orderly fashion so that I will be understood by others. Reason helps us to become better human beings and achieve a better quality of life. The great philosophers have realized that every one of us has a desire to question things. We never stop asking questions. And it all begins with a sense of awe: we are intrigued by something we don’t know but desire to know better. That’s what drove the great physicists to discover the nature of matter, Watson and Crick to shed light on what DNA is, and Wernher von Braun to help build the first rockets that transported humans to the moon.2 Discoveries begin with curiosity and awe about the mysteries we encounter and about which we want to know more. Nevertheless, the questions a philosopher asks are different from those a scientist would ask. While the biologist studies living things, the philosopher desires to know what things are, and what life is; philosophers use their mind, not a lab. The sciences, just like the humanities, look at very specific objects, while philosophy looks at the bedrock of things and the foundation of it all, and at how these things hang together in the whole of reality. Lastly, I think that good reasoning would help this country. Millions of Americans seem to no longer want to listen to each other or even contemplate any counterargument to their ideas about life, liberty, and politics. We are stuck in a deadlock of partisan polarization in which we focus only on information that confirms our biases instead of critically engaging with what challenges them. Unlocking the powers of reason offers a way out of such a standstill because it empowers people to scrutinize texts (and images), distinguish aspects of questions, identify hidden presuppositions, and reject fallacious conclusions. A world dominated by half-truths and fake news cries out for more reason! About three-quarters of Americans label people from the other political party as “closed-minded,” but at the same time, they detest the polarization of their country.3 They clearly see polarization as (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 13 6/3/21 8:31 AM 6 Think Better a problem but do not know how to overcome it.4 I suggest that more and better reasoning might be a way forward: adopting more rationality not only aids the common good but can also lead to mutual learning, tolerance, and empathy as well as undermine prejudices and false assumptions. Reason has the power to bring people together and create unity because it is a gift we all share. Since this book came about as a result of some soul searching, I wanted it to be personal and not driven by philosophical jargon or academic expectations. That’s why I laid out what I consider helpful for myself, my kids, and my students in short chapters but in a way that lets the reader join the quest and take possession of the discoveries for herself. It’s needless to say that you might not agree with all my conclusions. But if this book helps you see that the diversity of our minds makes this world beautiful and that reasoning is a powerful tool for the good, then it has fulfilled its purpose. (Unpublished manuscript—copyright protected Baker Publishing Group) _Lehner_Think Better_ES_jck.indd 14 6/3/21 8:31 AM