To Think or Not to Think...

Let me start by saying that I am not at all convinced that thinking is a ‘good thing’ – in fact I tend to side with Nietzsche in thinking that it’s probably not: thinking may well take us closer to the truth, but the truth is generally not terribly conducive to survival or happiness, and as creatures we are ingeniously designed to avoid the truth in a host of subtle ways.

And of course by ‘thinking’ I mean feeling, since as any self-respecting philosopher should know by now, thinking is merely a branch of feeling. The kind of feeling that we commonly call ‘thinking’ is different from feeling sad or angry, in that it typically involves more subtle feelings towards less immediate things – such as the future (or maths problems) for example. People who spend a lot of time pondering the future we tend to call ‘thinkers’. Are they much happier? Probably not.

But is it therefore better not to ‘think’ in this sense – instead to absorb oneself in all the stuff that is happening right now: the Instagram, the Twitter, the Outrage, the Donald?

Some people think not. Heidegger has a special expression for people who have given up pursuing the truth and instead content themselves with more immediate reactions to stuff going on around them. He calls such people ‘fallen’.

Have you spotted the problem? Yes, you’re right. Heidegger is, himself, a Thinker. And not a terribly happy man one would venture.

So what to do? To be a truth-seeker, a miserable thinker? Or join the hapless herd, merrily scrolling their way through the daily outrage?

Nietzsche had an answer. He imagined an entirely different kind of creature – one that could be aware of the truth and also be merry. Will we ever see such a creature? We can only hope.

Image: @robbie36