The Distinction Between Thinking and Knowing.

AuthorKREYCHE, GERALD F.
PositionBrief Article

OUR PRESENT AGE is identified as the Age of Information. Different eras were characterized by the product that dominated the times, such as Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, etc. Quite literally, we excel in knowledge. Our accumulation of facts exceeds that of the greatest minds in the past. Neither Aristotle nor Galileo knew the distance of the Earth from the sun or moon. Neither Plato nor Isaac Newton knew the speed of light. Today, however, most grammar school kids can access that information.

Information--that is, facts--is an absolute necessity for living. Contrary to some contemporary educators, we need to learn facts and learn them well. One doesn't think in a vacuum; one needs material to work with. Facts are stubborn and, when resisted, one always stubs one's toe against their rock-hard nature. Yet, as the classic Japanese movie, "Rashomon," pointed out, all facts need interpretation--and that is done by thought.

Despite our incredible wealth of knowledge, the question still can be raised, "How much thinking do we do?" Many of us might find this puzzling, for we tend to identify thinking with knowing yet the two are far from identical. One can be passive and absorb information like a sponge. Some learn a language with earphones and a tape recorder, even in their sleep. We are essentially passive in being informed. On the other hand, information comes from without and produces knowledge.

Thinking, though, is an immanent or inner activity. It is tiring and may prove difficult. It also may require intense concentration. Sometimes, it takes the form of contemplation. When one watched champion chess players such as Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer considering their next moves in a chess match, one observed humans deep in thought. They reminded us of the famous statue of "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin, where the figure is seated, elbow on knee, with a hand supporting his head. One is almost forced to ask oneself what Rodin's subject is thinking about.

The supreme achievement

Thinking is the supreme achievement of the human species and the reason for its continuous advancement since it came into exitence. An example of such activity is the fundamental question of Wilhelm Gottfried Leibnitz, the co-inventor of calculus: "Why is there something rather than nothing?" Ariel' all, nothing is easier to accomplish than something! So, too, the remark of nuclear physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer on the initial occasion of the explosion of the atomic...

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