The Two Methods of Thought

[William_Thompson]

I just had a revelation and I wanted to share it with my favorate BBS, the Bad Astronomy Forum even before I fleshed it out and cited all my examples: The Two Methods of Thought (http://www.completetranslations.com/_phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=405)

[Enzp]

Are they mutually exclusive? I don't think so.

My agenda is to spread science and more importantly critical thinking to our children. I will seek and use facts in this endeavor.

[William_Thompson]

Are they mutually exclusive? I don't think so.

My agenda is to spread science and more importantly critical thinking to our children. I will seek and use facts in this endeavor.

I can't argue with you there.

There is an overlap you have found. This might be one of the few examples where you can have both.

In your case, you would have to start with respect for understanding all the facts BEFORE you start out on that (as you would call it) agenda.

In contrast, most people seem to naturally start out on an agenda on the front-end and close their minds off to any facts that might discredit or distract from that agenda.

This, I believe, is how human beings naturally (as in an organic and initial state) think. And I think we need to watch out for this and not allow ourselves to slip back into this.

Only those few of us who can look critically at ourselves and have the courage to throw away all the beliefs we held dear and start over from scratch are able to truly grow. It is the best thing you can do for yourself.

[Mosheh Thezion]

what about AND & OR...

And we dont always have agendas.. when thinking...

they say 1/4 of our brains is dedicated to visual processing.... and as such i would think the facts.. carry more weight, yet indeed, when we think about the fact, we usually have agendas.. even if they are dumb...
like wanting a better spear, or new ways to catch fish...

so in a way.. you maybe correct... but what do i know.

also...

does that link.. site... translate your posts.. into other laugauages.. or is that just is name??

-MT

[Candy]

I think there are additional ways of thought, I just wish I could teach them to my co-workers.

[paulie jay]

What about stream of conciousness?

[Mosheh Thezion]

I have very vivid dreams... with details so complete its.. well.. you know.
but i do tend to forget... hummm.. thats so common, it must be designed into our species... thus the dreams.. have only a subliminal effect...

hummm
-MT

[Enzp]

I am not really disagreeing altogether. Seems like there is indeed some overlap. Unlikely as it seems, someone totally agenda driven could decide facts was the most effective way to go about it.

[worzel]

I basically agree with the OP. Although there may be other forms of thought, you can often divide up the protagonists of a thread neatly into fact-driven and agenda-driven.

[Frog march]

You could say that an animal, like a elephant, operates with both methods of thinking.
a) He/she has an agenda, ie survival(personal and collective)
b) And then there are the facts about how to survive, eg where food and water are, how to avoid predators etc.

[hhEb09'1]

I just had a revelation and I wanted to share it with my favorate BBS, the Bad Astronomy Forum even before I fleshed it out and cited all my examples: The Two Methods of Thought (http://www.completetranslations.com/_phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=405)
There are Two Methods of Thought

(#1) Agenda Driven

(#2) Fact Driven

What method you employ has nothing to do with intelligence, education, income or even experience.

I will come back and elaborate later. I just had to jot that down right now.

© 2005 William ("Bill") Menke Thompson
What about

(#3) Logic Driven

(#4) Chaos Driven

:)

[Donnie B.]

I believe there are two methods of thought -- namely:

1) That used by persons who tend to divide things into two categories

2) That used by persons who don't tend to divide things into two categories

[farmerjumperdon]

Not sure I follow. What is your definition for Method of Thought?

I've always thought of all behaviors (what you think, what you say, what you do - absolutely everything) to be driven by Priniciples, whether a person is conciously aware of the principles behind the action or not. Everyone has a set of beliefs, which is basically the distillation of all our life experiences, which lead to the building of principles. We act out our life as an attempt to meet our basic human needs through a series of behaviors controlled by those principles. Change (aka growth) occurs whenever we add new experiences to the mix, and especially when the new experience conflicts with an existing belief or makes us realize that a chosen behavior contradicts with meeting our needs.

[Argos]

I thought this talk was about the deductive and inductive methods...

[farmerjumperdon]

I thought this talk was about the deductive and inductive methods...

OK, I missed that. I thought it was about why people do what they do.

[Fram]

I don't think it was clear which of the two (or another) was meant.

Anyway, I don't think you can have a fact-driven method only. The collection of facts is based on an agenda, on a selection method which has some goal, some purpose in mind. That doesn't mean that it is conclusion-driven (i.e., I have a conclusion, now give me the facts), but it is agenda-driven (my agenda, my aim is to know which types of black holes exist. Now give me the facts concerning those). You want to do something with those facts.

[hhEb09'1]

I thought this talk was about the deductive and inductive methods...The OP linked to a post of his on another board that had the two listed (http://www.bautforum.com/showpost.php?p=562944&postcount=11), agenda driven and fact driven.

[AstroRockHunter]

These strike me more as two methods of decision making rather than "two methods of thought".

Or am I missing something???

[ToSeek]

Well, there are people who want to find out the truth and people who want to find support for what they've already decided. That's how I interpreted the OP.