David Ancell / Saturday March 15, 2003
I saw an advertisement (I believe it was for Campion College.) that said that “We teach you how to think; not what to think.” Indeed, our consumerist, utilitarian society doesn’t really value our minds. Much of our education is based on telling us what to think. The commercialism of our society is successful precisely because we are far more more used to learning what to think than how.
Ironically, the first time an impression about this was made on me was by a moral relativist who gave an ethics talk at the University of Tennessee School of Pharmacy. He told us that we hold our religious beliefs because “you’ve been taught.” He insisted that no one group could say they were right. Sadly, he fell into his own trap when he insisted that he was right in saying that no one was right. He insisted on telling people to think that no one could say they were right and that we couldn’t base our actions on the “beliefs of one group.”
If only I had known how to think at the time, I would have blown away that garbage. From there, I went on a study to show why we could know what was right. In the end, I learned that I need to learn how to think. I have gotten better at it, but I am going to continue working.
Back then, I thought philosophy classes were stupid. Now I wonder why my old high school now requires four years of math and science for college prep students but doesn’t even offer a philosophy course. I wonder why teachers were always telling us to think but few bothered to teach us how.
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