1. A theoretical education. Proverbially
schools teach generalizations, abstractions, and
principles. The scholar and the student are
compelled to practice in this most effective form
of thinking. A justifiable criticism of the
schools is that they are inclined to neglect the
lower forms of thinking--the dealing with the
concrete--in their zeal for the highest forms of
thinking. However, a school education not
only gives practice in handling generalizations,
abstractions, and principles, but it provides
the conditions necessary to stimulate the learners
to amass a useful stock of concepts that at
a later time will be used in reflective judgments.
2. Suggestions from others. Reflective
judgments depend upon condensed experience.
The condensation is not produced by compres-
<p 300>
sion but by selecting the common though essential
element from various former experiences
and by uniting these elements into a new unity.
This breaking up of former experiences by
analyzing out the essential factor is a difficult
task and one in which no man can proceed far
without assistance from others.
At a recent meeting of psychologists a
speaker presented a paper on the most helpful
order of presentation of topics for a course in
psychology. He simply called our attention to
certain facts which we had all experienced as
teachers of psychology. He then combined
these abstracted elements in a new unity in
such a way that I was enabled to form a reflective
judgment as to the order of presenting
topics in psychology. Without his suggestion
I probably never would have been able to make
the analysis necessary for the reflective judgment.
We need all the help we can get to assist us
to analyze our own experiences. To this end
we employ with great profit such agencies as
conferences with fellow-workmen, conventions,
<p 301>
visitations, trade journals, and technical discussions
upon our own problem (cf. Chapter
XI).
3. Verbal expression. We cannot well unite
factors of previous experience into a new whole
unless we have some symbol to stand for the
new unity. As such a symbol, a word is the
most effective. Animals never carry on reflective
judgments and never can, since they do
not possess a language adequate to such demands.
The attempt to express one's thought
in words is in reality often a means for creating
the thought as well as a means for its expression.
A few years ago I prepared a paper on
the subject, ``Making Psychology Practical.''
In my attempt to express myself I clarified
my thinking, formed new generalizations, and
therefore was enabled to do with full consciousness
(with reflective judgments) what previously
I had done but blindly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account