Thinking about how people think:

Some thoughts!

 We think so because other

people all think so; or because —

or because  — after all we do

think so; or because we were

told so, and think we must think

so; or because we once thought

so, and think we still think so; or

because, having thought so, we

think we will think so.

 —Henry Sidgwick

Henry Sidgwick’s contribution to

understanding how people think

(which I started the chapter with)

touches upon the key issues,

although it’s hardly expressed very

elegantly. If students wrote like that

in exams, they may not fail but they

wouldn’t get many marks. It’s almost

rambling — not clear and authorita-

tive at all!

But then English philosopher

Sidgwick didn’t write those words

at all. You can find plenty of people

on the Internet saying that he did,

but when you look more closely

(as Critical Thinkers always should

do) you find that the lines are sup-

posed to be insights that occurred

to the great philosopher in his

sleep, and are in fact as recorded

by his relatives, Arthur and Eleanor

Mildred Sidgwick. They were prob-

ably struck by his idea that thinking

is not really an individual matter at

all, but rather a complex social phe-

nomenon involving lots of different

associations — some of them mis-

remembered and some maybe even

imaginary!