Do you agree with what he says? Why or why not?
I agree with what Heidegger says about there being two modes of thinking. The two ways of thinking are philosophical and thoughtless thinking. He provides clear differences between thoughtless thinking and a calculative thinking. Thoughtless thinking comes quickly and in the cheapest ways. In the end, a person ends up forgetting these thoughts (HEIDEGGER). When these ideas are forgotten, it means that it has no importance or meaning to human life. I was able to observe that there are a lot of things in the world that has been created by humans; however, most of the things end up being forgotten or unrecognized by many. A good example can be observed from the music made by musicians. Many musicians have great talent and songs. Nevertheless, many songs end up being forgotten even though they were a great hit internationally. This fact proves that no matter how good the music was it ended up being forgotten because it probably did not have any meaning.
The other argument about thoughtless thinking that seems to be valid has to do with the capacity of not giving up thinking. The process of thinking shows some significant growth for human life regardless of it having no meaning. Therefore, it shows that people have spirit and reason, and that is why humans are destined to think. No matter how invalid an argument is, a person will always try to defend its premise. Therefore, showing how thoughtless thinking can be a distinctive kind of thinking.
According to Heidegger, calculative thinking involves looking at how one can be able to achieve their goals about something (HEIDEGGER). That sort of thinking can be observed from the infomercials that are shown on TV. These infomercials talk about how people can better their lives when they learn how to achieve their set goals. The goals can be established by researching, organizing, and planning on its destined destination such as business progression.
Meditative thinking can be stated to be thoughts that a person has when they go to the lake or the woods. This thinking enables a person to free themselves from the hustle of life. Heidegger claims that meditative thinking is unaware of reality thus it causes a person to be unable to come out of financial crisis or start a business. Many philosophers would never encourage this kind of thinking because it is irrelevant. However, Heidegger urges people on this thought because it makes them think about the present history such as a farmer who has planted plants contemplate on whether the seed would grow (HEIDEGGER).
Do you believe that this distinction is relevant and important in general and to what we have studied in this course?
I think that Heidegger’s information is significant and important when it comes to the topic of how humans think. In the memorial address, it provides people with information about the different ways in which, humans think (HEIDEGGER). This fact aligns itself with what we have studied in the course of philosophy. The two modes of thinking as observed from the memorial address is philosophical and thoughtless thinking. In thoughtless and meditative reasoning, a person reasons about things in real life that cannot be able to solve or help in reaching specific goals. These types of thoughts are only useful for a very short period. There are times when the thoughts do not have any value for a person. However, according to the course, thinking regardless of how invaluable it is can be stated to be important. The reason is stemmed from the fact that a person can be able to think or reason. Therefore, this kind of thinking can be stated to be special because it shows that a person is human.
Most philosophers from the ancient times to the modern world encourage people to have calculative thinking. In calculative thinking, a person can be able to plan and set goals which, will be achieved. It can be observed that this kind of thinking is imperative when it comes to philosophy. The ancient philosophers and modern philosophers had to think carefully in order to come up with their ideas. An example is Descartes who was puzzled by how the mind and body works (Gyatso). Through this puzzlement he was able to organize himself and research further about the relationship between the mind and body thereby came up with his thought of dualism. This notion has been used by many philosophers from the past to the present. Therefore, I can be able to see that Descartes used calculative thinking to come up with his conclusion of the relationship between the body and mind. Through this I was able to understand why many philosophers claim that human beings are thinking beings. This fact is what sets aside humans from animals.
Work cited
Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. Understanding the Mind: The Nature and Power of the Mind. Tharpa Publications, 1997. Print
HEIDEGGER, MARTIN. DISCOURSE ON THINKING . New York: HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS, 1959. Print
