“How We Think” Reading Response #5

When saying the phrase “I thought” you essentially take a moment and pause. During that moment of thought you are channeling back through your mind and reflecting on what you believe to be true. For instance, I could say “I thought the sky was blue.” In my past, I have always been taught that the sky is the color blue. But you could ask the question, what even is the color blue? When talking about thinking, an example of this might be while writing this response my stomach growls which makes me think about food and eating. This jumps into the first two chapters of “How We Think”, and the ideas Dewey shares regarding thought, thinking, and belief.

In the book “How We Think” by John Dewey, he begins by having his readers think about thought and how that may be defined. He talks about what a thought is and the difference between a thought and belief. There are three definitions of thought that he states, some being what society thinks thought is, and eventually him sharing what he believes is thought. 

The first definition of thought he shares is anything that runs through your head. The second definition is ideas as a result of our senses. The third definition is how a thought or reflective thought is intentional and has a purpose. The last definition is Dewey’s definition of what thought is. The purpose of reflective thought is to question the beliefs around us and decide whether they are legitimate or not. Dewey uses the example of how, “men thought the world was flat until Columbus thought it to be round” (Dewey, 5) With that being said, the men held a belief prior to Columbus’s thought. In return, what would a belief be? A belief is a preconceived opinion not based off of reasoning but something you learned without having sensible facts. It is easy to judge people or things believing that what we are saying holds to be true. This goes back to how the men thought the world was flat, only because they were taught that the world was flat before having a reasonable conclusion for it to be round. In addition, Dewey talks about how thinking, in which you are essentially relating things to one another, and how this begins with emotion whereas thought comes from conscious thinking through this reflective thought discussed above.