Think Before You Search

I’m working on a piece about eating ethically.

In writing this, I want to be thorough. I want to come to a conclusion that makes sense to me. And I want my answer to be clear enough that someone who disagrees can see that I am using logic and clear arguments.

So I set out to write, and my first thought was I should do some reading. I should find the leading thinkers in this field, read what they have to say, and then form my opinion.

This is a reasonable mindset for learning a new skill, but for philosophical questions, this is not the most productive mindset to have.

If I wanted to learn how to code, it makes sense to go out and find some resources. I need to learn the rules of the game before I can even engage with it. I save a massive amount of time by not fiddling around trying all sorts of random letters and symbols trying to get something to happen on my computer.

But philosophy is different. We all instinctively know the rules of the game. Some people may be better at it, and some may communicate it better, but we all know how to think. When we come to a question like, is it ethical to eat meat? We all possess the tools to come to a conclusion.

My instinct was not to think. It was to look for the answers of experts. To dismiss my judgement, and the work involved in thinking through a question.

When you nourish the habit of exercising judgement, you improve your judgement. You improve your ability to think. You improve your trust in your ability to think, and you improve your ability to live.

Of course, you will overlook things, and come to some shaky conclusions. Reading other perspectives and conclusions can only improve your judgement if you have exercised your judgement in the first place.  We would be fools not to learn from people who have devoted their lives to thinking in certain fields of study. But the best way to learn from them is to approach their ideas with ideas of our own.

Deciding to think through and write about a topic without researching is the complete opposite of the way we were taught to write in the school system. Most of us were taught to feel incapable of coming to our own conclusions, so the habit we learned was to piggyback on the opinions of others. We learned to be lazy in our thinking, and slowly we lost trust in our judgement.

Now we are faced with the task of rebuilding our intellectual confidence. Reversing the habit to hide from thinking, the habit of searching for authority before thinking for ourselves, and issue by issue remodeling our worldview.