Lateral Thinking
LATERAL THINKING
"I DID it without thinking." When we come to reflect, this remark would apply to most of the actions we perform in our ordinary daily routine. Many of our actions are instinctive or automatic responses to certain situations: thus we blink if a threatening fist suddenly approaches close to the face and we step out of the way of some obstacle in our path. Many again are matters of habit—having discovered the way to act, either for ourselves or by learning from others, we have performed the action so often that when the appropriate situation occurs our response is almost involuntary and requires no more perhaps than a momentary thought.
But when we are confronted with a difficulty, perplexity, or problem, that is, an unfamiliar situation to which we have no response ready, either instinctive or habitual, then we 'put on our thinking cap'; for thinking is the characteristically human method of seeking a solution, as opposed to the haphazard, hit or miss, trial and error method common in the rest of the animal world. It is this power of dealing with a novel situation by reflection, without overt action, that is the distinguishing mark of homo sapiens.
Thinking therefore should first of all be distinguished from day-dreaming, in which we allow our minds to wander at random or to indulge in idle fancies or to build castles in the air without the direction exercised by the will-power.Thinking is essentially purposive— directed and controlled, at any rate in its earlier stages, by the conscious exercise of will, and set in motion by the conscious realization of the existence of a problem demanding solution.
But whatever the problem, practical or theoretical, grave or trivial, the thinking process is essentially the same and usually passes through the following stages:
|1. |Interest: the thinker becomes aware of the problem and his interest is aroused. |
|2.
"I DID it without thinking." When we come to reflect, this remark would apply to most of the actions we perform in our ordinary daily routine. Many of our actions are instinctive or automatic responses to certain situations: thus we blink if a threatening fist suddenly approaches close to the face and we step out of the way of some obstacle in our path. Many again are matters of habit—having discovered the way to act, either for ourselves or by learning from others, we have performed the action so often that when the appropriate situation occurs our response is almost involuntary and requires no more perhaps than a momentary thought.
But when we are confronted with a difficulty, perplexity, or problem, that is, an unfamiliar situation to which we have no response ready, either instinctive or habitual, then we 'put on our thinking cap'; for thinking is the characteristically human method of seeking a solution, as opposed to the haphazard, hit or miss, trial and error method common in the rest of the animal world. It is this power of dealing with a novel situation by reflection, without overt action, that is the distinguishing mark of homo sapiens.
Thinking therefore should first of all be distinguished from day-dreaming, in which we allow our minds to wander at random or to indulge in idle fancies or to build castles in the air without the direction exercised by the will-power.Thinking is essentially purposive— directed and controlled, at any rate in its earlier stages, by the conscious exercise of will, and set in motion by the conscious realization of the existence of a problem demanding solution.
But whatever the problem, practical or theoretical, grave or trivial, the thinking process is essentially the same and usually passes through the following stages:
|1. |Interest: the thinker becomes aware of the problem and his interest is aroused. |
|2.