The Predicate of Real Thought

The importance of thought is all-too-often overlooked. However, the preceding statement needs to be qualified. In a manner of speaking, there is thought and then there is thought. Not all thought is the same. Not all thought is of the same kind, quality, coherence, accuracy, validity or utility. The word is often used in a generalized context without clear and appropriate meaning. Sometimes what is meant is not “thought” at all.

When Henry Ford said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it” he wasn’t using the word “think” in the same sense that someone says, “I think I’ll have a beer.” In this case the context means everything and is a determining value of the actual meaning of the word. Merely having words run around in your head is not “thinking” in the strictest sense of the word. The latter could be called a form of mental activity but is not thinking in the full sense of the word.

When defining words one gets into the problem of whether it is a denotation of a given term or applying a connotation of the same term. For example, I can refer to a “dog” and two people, depending upon their own unique experiences, will have differing associations relating to that word. One may only have experience with poodles while the other with Great Danes and while each knows the generic meaning of the term until the definition is qualified they may be “thinking” of entirely different connotations in reference to the term. Of such misunderstanding arise.

In that regard, a very specific connotation will be applied to the word “think” so that the intent will be clear as possible. Now there may be some who will seek to quibble with such definitions but this is not a discussion on philosophy in the general sense. For the sake of this exposition certain characteristics concerning life as a human being are going to be presumed.

Since the subject being examined here is Liberty then existence as a human being and the existence of other human beings is going to be taken as self-evident, as a given, since the subject itself cannot be entertained without presuming these as facts. The wider philosophical discussion as to whether they are facts, and, epistemologically, how we know they are facts is for another time and place and will not be considered here. The subject of Liberty must presuppose the existence a society as well for it to have any cultural or moral meaning otherwise it merely equates to naked naturalistic survival.

The thought required to articulate and understand the concept of Liberty demands these presumptions. Lacking them the discussion will simply degenerate into an endless tangle of conflicting assumptions and assertions, none of which would be fruitful. Liberty, to have any meaning, must be subject to a precise definition and this means clarity of thought. Thus the care in defining and qualifying the meaning of the word “thought” upon which the word Liberty is predicated. All else will consequently derive from the meaning, coherence, validity, integrity and efficacy of that premise, that we think.