Brief Introduction: Thinking and Feeling

 

As you probably noticed, we have two broad topic areas, Use Your Head and Use Your Heart.  We think it will help if we offer an introduction that explains why we have these two, an introduction we'll put into each topic category.  So here goes

 

First,  human mental processes, for right or for wrong, have often been divided into these two categories: Thinking (cognition) and feeling (affect, or emotion).  So we did the same.

Both thinking and feeling can work for us in recognizing and seeing reality, and both can work against us. We explore both how they can help and how they can hinder.

 

Second, in our opinion, both play a big part in how we see and understand reality, so we need to talk about both as part of our efforts on our web site.

 

Third, Thoughts and feelings can and often do occur at the same time along a continuum.  An example of being at the thought end might be solving a math problem, while laughing at a joke might be at the other end.

 

            To clarify this, here is a diagram:

 

 

 Thoughts      Feelings           

 

So  not only are both important in grasping reality, but both need to be in some sort of balance to work effectively.  It is especially important that one not overwhelm the other, which can occur when we move toward one end, or the other of the continuum.  Should such an imbalance occur, reality can become obscure (how's that for a little rhyme?).

Thinking: Click buttons below to read articles about thinking. 

 To read about intelligence 

 To read about reasoning and how we can use it

 To read about Critical Thinking and how it benefits us

 To read about a couple ways of thinking (divergent and convergent)

 To read about causality

 To read about two kinds of errors that can occur when we try to see reality

 To read about who likes it when people are ignorant, or stupid

 

Feeling: Click buttons below to read articles about what we feel and how it affects us.

 

 To read about emotional intelligence (EQ)

 To read about emotions and how they can work for, or against us

 To read about empathy, including how it can form a basis for ethics

 

 To go to the Articles Page

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