Nature of Thought

Nature of Thought
Mathew T. Quick
PHL251, July 22 2012
Laura Provencher
University of Phoenix
Nature of Thought
In our lives, there is not a moment that goes by that our brains are not processing something. Weather it be something we see, feel, or hear, our brains process it through our thoughts. Thinking is the one thing that we are sure we will always do. Anything we do in life there is a thought that goes along with it. Even though some people claim that they can go through life and have a thoughtless act, there is always some thought to it.
Thinking, in itself, is one thing in this world that has never been fully figured out or understood. This quote says it all, “We know more of the basic principals of the universe, of the atom, and of our bodies then we do our brains” (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007). This is one thing that is still undefined. We can relate it to things such as action and communication as each action and form of communication all begin with thought, but actual thinking, that is still a mystery.
Memories are what make our lives interesting. When we remember a moment in time, good or bad, it sends our brains on a trip regaling the times we have had with friends and family. It sends a shiver through your body or it can make you smile like never before. According to "Dictionary.com" (2012), memory is defined as “the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences”. We think about thing of the past and all of these thoughts complied together become our memories.
Our medium in thinking is the language in which we portray our thoughts to others. “Although we may think in other ways besides language, such as with images or feelings, language plays a central role in our thinking” (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007). Language is the universal tool we as humans have to convey thoughts to each other. Look at this world, on huge conglomeration of people, sights, visions, cultures, and thoughts. Each culture also has its own language. Weather it be the global language of English, or the almost extinct languages of small tribes. With out their languages, they really have almost no way to get our thoughts across to anyone. Even in they days before most civilization existed, the people then had some sort of language to communicate with.
Everyone has had a moment in their lives where we hear or see something and automatically perceive what is going on, but it really is quite the opposite. There is one time I can specifically remember when I was in high school. My parents had been fighting all day long. When the parents were fighting, we were banished to our bedrooms. We heard yelling and screaming all day long, both of them throwing things, many obscenities said on both sides. I was sitting in my room just irritated because I really wanted out of the house. Out of nowhere I heard a loud thump and it got really quiet. The first thing that came to my mind was “he knocked her out”. I instantly grabbed a bat and ran out of my room to find my mother on the floor crying, and my step father standing over her. I went at him full force, and if it weren’t for my mom getting up and in my way, he would have had a large lump on his head. All I could think about at that time was, “you hit my mother, and you will die”.
After the situation calmed down, and they were separated, I learned what really had happened. I completely had forgotten that we had just had the floor finished, and it was very slick. My mother had lunged at him and slipped and hit the ground with massive force. When I had come out, my step father was coming to help her up. There was such a difference with the what I heard and thought happened, and what really happened because I have seen arguments get violent before, and when you hear a crash like I heard, your mind would automatically think the worst, just like mine did. What it taught me was that when you have a pre-existing thought or memory of a situation, it almost seems that you will jump to the conclusion of what happened in the past. That itself is not always the case as every situation, like your thoughts on the matter, are never the same.
Personal barriers can also be a great influence on the way you think. Imagine being a 4 year old child running around outside in the summer time. You go to find a toy, and stumble on a bee hive. You being a curious child investigate this strange thing in your path and end up being attacked by the hive. This type of incident can greatly affect how you think of bees in the future. It could leave you with a complex that they are always going to attack you.
There are much worse barriers too, such as phobias, addictions, and diseases. I personally have a friend who is literally, deathly afraid of people dressed in gorilla suits. We tested this fear a teens in high school. Needless to say it is a real phobia and well he had a massive anxiety attack because of it. I wonder what went on in his head though. Did he think we were there to kill or injure him? What was the underlying cause for the thoughts and the fear? He never told us, and after that day, we never asked.
Thought itself can easily be changed by these barriers. People who suffer from depression often do not have the will to get out of bed on some days. They have the “glass is half empty” mentality almost all day of every day. This barrier keeps them from doing anything from the smallest every day things as house work, bathing to bigger things like family gatherings or vacations. Feelings and thoughts of worthlessness, and the unwillingness to get up and be who they really are, causes a real break down inside and negative thinking is what they have left. After seeing all of this laid out, we see that everything we do involves thinking. From the time we get out of bed and think about what we want for breakfast, until we lay down at night thinking about the day’s events, we are always thinking. Good thoughts bad thoughts, there are still thoughts. From the barriers that pose distraction to the languages we convey our thoughts to others, we are always thinking.

References
Kirby, G. R., & Goodpaster, J. R. (2007). Thinking: An interdisciplinary approach to critical thinking(4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Dictionary.com. (2012). Retrieved from http://dictionary.Reference.com/browse/ memory?s=t

References: Kirby, G. R., & Goodpaster, J. R. (2007). Thinking: An interdisciplinary approach to critical thinking(4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Dictionary.com. (2012). Retrieved from http://dictionary.Reference.com/browse/ memory?s=t