1/27/2020 What is thinking?

- İbrahim Kalın - Daily Sabah

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What is thinking?
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Thinking is a constant search to answer the ultimate

question of why there is something rather than nothing.
Since nothing escapes existence, and there is nothing outside
the great chain of being, all thinking is an exercise in
İBRAHIM KALIN
@ikalin1 existence and its infinite modalities

Published

I n the so-called information age in which we live, we have lost the

12.10.2018
20:32
meaning of the most foundational human activity: thinking. We
confuse information with knowledge and think rather deceptively that Articles
thinking is processing information. COLUMNS

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Thinking is not information gathering. It is not data analysis. It is not
simply linking objects to concepts or establishing logical connections COLUMNS

between concepts. Thinking involves more than a mental procedure. Turkey's burden must be shared

Thinking is a constant search to answer the ultimate question of why COLUMNS

there is something rather than nothing. Since nothing escapes existence, The Idlib quagmire is yet another test
for the international system
and there is nothing outside the great chain of being, all thinking is an
exercise in existence and its infinite modalities. Whether we conduct a
scientific experiment, write a beautiful poem on the morning breeze or
analyze modern cities, we are dealing with the various aspects and
manifestations of existence.

All thinking must be grounded in existence; otherwise we can never

overcome the trap of solipsism. In this sense, thinking is not comprised
of the internal workings of my mind. The Cartesian dualism of mind (res
cogitans) and world (res extensa) never arises when thinking is rooted in
existence. The classical philosophers rejected subjectivism and
philosophical skepticism on this ground.

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Existence is not an abstract concept. It is the most concrete and most

embracing reality. We may picture it as an idea or concept in our minds.
But the reality of existence is always more than its mental
representations. It is like the difference between a scene and its picture.
When we take a picture, we freeze that moment, take it out of its natural
state of flow and look at it as a frozen moment. What we look at is not
unreal. As a picture, it is not something imaginary. But it is not the reality
itself but a picture of it. As it happens in all abstractions, it is now

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1/27/2020 What is thinking? - İbrahim Kalın - Daily Sabah

separated from the flow of existence in which it exists. We cannot treat

this frozen moment as reality itself. Because reality never stops flowing.

Thinking is an exercise in existence because every mental judgment or

logical connection we make is related to existence. This crucial point is
underlined by the difference between existence (wujud) and existent
(mawjud). Things exist such as a tree, the sky or the house down the
street. They have their own unique properties. They are different from
each other. Each of them exists in its own way. But they share one thing
in common: the act of existing. Or to put in the language of classical
philosophy of Mulla Sadra, they all "participate" in existence. It is not the
case that existent things make up what we call existence. It is the other
way around: existence generates particular beings that exist in their own
unique ways. It is existence that flows through all that we see and
experience as the world: mountains, animals, humans, the wind, the rain,
the cities and all the things that we as human beings create with our own
hands. Existence appears in countless modalities and with infinite colors.
Existence is more than the sum total of existe

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nts.

Just as things ("substances") partake of existence, we human beings too

participate in existence. This participation establishes a special
connection between us and existence because we contemplate the
meaning of this special relationship.

When we think about an object, a moment, a situation or a relation, we

are contemplating existence and its countless manifestation. It is not the
case that the world of existence is a passive object with no meaning to
which we assign meaning. To the contrary, things are saddled with
meaning, purpose, proportion and significance independent of us. The
subjectivist turn in Western philosophy has made the world a meaning-
less object and the human being a world-less subject. And we are still
trapped in this maze. We think that the universe has no meaning without
us. We assert with foolish pride and ignorance that existence has no
purpose other than serving us. The truth is just the opposite. The world
has meaning whether we understand it or not. We are only part of a
reality larger than us.

The Muslim philosophers define philosophy as the ability "to know the
reality of things as they are to the extent to which it is possible within
human capacity." This definition reveals much about the reality of
existence and our relationship to it: Things have their own reality
independent of us, and we can try to understand it to the best of our
abilities. We do not own the world. We cannot treat existence as a slave.
We can only protect and nourish it to realize our own potential. Our

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1/27/2020 What is thinking? - İbrahim Kalın - Daily Sabah

relationship to the world of existence cannot be one of domination and

exploitation.

Thinking entails developing intellectual, logical and emotional capacities

to understand the complex and dynamic reality we call existence.
Reducing the world of existence to my mental constructions of it is the
deadliest philosophical mistake we can commit. It is only by applying
different cognitive perspectives to the multilayered reality of existence
that we can begin to grasp its reality and understand our own truth. This
means carrying knowledge and thinking beyond calculative reason and
discursive analysis.

We have to use our minds as well as hearts to have a proper

understanding of the world. Philosophy and logic are important but so
are art, poetry and religion. No thinking is meaningful unless it leads to
wisdom and shows the ways of how existence unveils itself. Thinking will
enrich us only when we realize that we are not the masters of the world
but can only be its shepherd and protector.

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