Surely thinking too much can’t be good for anybody because it means they knee-jerkingly don’t take things at simple face value but are always looking for “hidden meanings” etc and seem incapable of “bottom line” thought…
I bet if I said “Good morning” to a philosopher he’d reply “What exactly do you mean by that?”…
For example, this present mid-east business seems to have everybody running round wringing their hands like washerwomen saying how terrible it all is and how can it be stopped, yet the bottom line is Hezbollah are firing rockets into Israel, so the Israelis are having to try to demolish the launch sites…
Wait I feel a divine revelation coming on! - If Hez stops firing rockets at Israel, the Israelis will pull out of Lebanon 
Hey maybe I should start a new philosphical cult, the “Bottom Line School of Thought” 
But will they pull out of Israel? I never stay to long in a place I’m not liked, so why do they.
I think there are a few more demands to be met than this for them to pull out. They also want their two dead soilders who were kipnapped, among other things.
TheCDF quote - But will they pull out of Israel? I never stay to long in a place I’m not liked, so why do they.
I think there are a few more demands to be met than this for them to pull out. They also want their two dead soilders who were kipnapped, among other things
The Bottom Line is Israel will NEVER NEVER NEVER stop bombing the rocket launchers in Leb or pull out as long as Hez are firing rockets.
It therefore follows that if Hez stops firing rockets, Israel will have nothing to bomb, and will eventually pull out.
Well, I think we can congratulate ourselves on satisfactorily working that out between us mate, see I told you Bottom Line thinking works
Thinking is the poison of action….’tis true.
He who thinks more acts less.
Yet, not thinking is a sure way of remaining a fool and a victim of the unknown and of one’s self.
Modern, western anti-intellectualism is a trend tied to current social and cultural necessities which demand a more passive, slavish less challenging disposition.
Stupidity has become the ‘in-thang’ and it is now cool to be dumb.
In fact the more obtuse you are the more likely you are to be happy, because there is less to deal with, less is required to be content and the less you challenge and question authority and ‘reality’.
Animals are content because they know little, they are satisfied with simply feeding their physical needs and they never question their existence.
The biting of the apple was a metaphorical way of stating just this.
The thinker is, definitely, less active than the non-thinker, since he has more to consider before acting and his action are more efficient and successful, due to his thought, when he does act.
Of course merely thinking doesn’t guarantee you success.
The quality of the thinking must be considered as well as the thinker’s ability to perceive and integrate detail into his thinking and on his ability to perceive the world as objectively as possible.
This demands a certain detachment and courage which many thinkers lack.
Ironically a thinker must possess much more courage than the non-thinker if he is to be successful or if he is to attain some level of contentment.
The non-thinker just doesn’t know enough to be worried or to feel insecure or to be discontented.
He appears as courageous and happy because of his ignorance.
Furthermore one must keep in mind that all acting is an indication of discontentment.
The most active are the least content, even though they may proclaim their happiness as a way of masking the unhappiness their activity exposes.
Some might even claim that the acting itself is what makes them happy, thusly diverting their minds from the original motive behind their action and making a pre-emptive excuse for their possible future failure is attaining satisfaction.
For me the acting is a symptom of a lack.
That which lacks nothing acts not. Why would it?
That which acts more lacks more and that which acts less lacks less.
Activity is a expression of instability.
Interestingly, to digress a little, “God’s†supposed acting in creating us the world exposes a lack which contradicts any assumptions about His omnipotence; His very desire to create hints at an instability and absence in Him which His creating satisfies or diverts Him from.
Evil can be seen as God’s lack seeking fulfillment.
In essence it hints at man’s lack which invents a Being (good) he aspires to be but then fails by clinging onto that which makes him necessary (evil).
Man’s creativity is motivated by an absence and man becomes all the more creative during periods of unrest and suffering and discontentment.
This is why war is a period of great technological and economic progress. The larger the economy is the bigger the war and the threat must be to inspire innovation and evolution.
This is why capitalism maintains a certain level of discontentment, whether artificial or actual, amongst its masses so as to spark progress and creativity.
The masses being content would result in stagnation.
The worker must be kept needing and threatened and unsatisfied or else he becomes complacent and lazy and inert.
One more reason why communism fails and will forever fail and why it had to be more overtly authoritarian so as to maintain some level of production, whereas in capitalism the authority is covertly integrated within the system and it seems more natural becomes it ties into man’s instinctive drives to procreate, dominate and control resources.
Finally the most gifted artists were the one’s tormented by personal demons.
They can still kill civilians which they are doing now and probably enjoying.
It’s not that they think to much it’s that they have a warped sense of thinking.
theres no such thing as just thinking to much…
When you get a headache from it you won’t think this anymore.
Mick,
Philosophers may think too much, but someone has to do it or else our actions would simply be this chaotic mystery in which we would all endlessly tumble.
Consider your assertion ‘Good Morning’. What are you really saying here? Some thinkers would argue that saying that things are ‘good’ or ‘desired’ are the equivalent of simply uttering ‘yep’ or nodding your head in no particular direction.
There is no truth value to your statement because ‘good’ is a type of function word – that is it has no real meaning on its own, rather it helps with the grammatical structure. ‘Good’ is sort of a tricky word to use an example but another would be ‘its’; you cannot define ‘its’ without using the word itself in your definition.
So no, we do not do not think too much because, to me at least – that implies that there is a certain limit. If that were so, it would mean our advance as an intellectual species would either be slowed, or downright finite.
How are these posts for evading your question. I think this is your very point.
Thinking is just another kind of acting,since everyone is the same with their discontentment and lack.some thinking more,some acting more,both are trying to satisfy their discontentment.The one who just thinking and not acting doesn’t mean that he is all contented.
Let me think on it for awhile.
True.
Thinking is a form of acting only it remains confined within the self.
We call it action when it involves others.
One more thought on the matter:
I find that people who are against what they call “over-thinking’ or “deconstructing†are really averse to the idea of going beyond a certain, personal comfort zone.
They believe that truth must remain positive towards the truth-holder and that any opinion must remain loyal to the self by facilitating its continuance.
This is where perspective becomes warped by personal preferences and all opinions are thought to offer an advantage to the opinion-holder.
For them their beliefs reflect their interests and they cannot imagine someone thinking something to be true unless it is positive or advantageous to them.
thinking too much on a particular subject to much exists but thinking to much in general doesnt… wether you get a headache or not depends how you think and what you are thinking about.
Ahh! Finally some wisdom.
;o … i hope that wasnt sarcasm
I 'm a philosopher I don’t think, I ask questions.
end.
it’s all about profit margins isn’t it Mick?
(well you might wanna work a bit on your PR and marketing then)
philosophers dont ask questions, they think…
asking yourself a questions ? well youd have to think about and work out the answer would you not… asking yourself a question is thinking…
philosophers dont need to ask question and mostly they dont, if a philosopher were to talk to another philosopher then it would be more of a conversation comparing views and beliefs than a question/answer session.
It wasn’t.
I am glad to know this but is that all there is to philosophy. I thought the purpose was to solve something. If all you have is 2 people talking and not listening and asking questions then it’s no good.