As the Medinge Group is a think tank reviewing a book with the title, Think seems a must. And there is much to like in this short book by Danish psychology professor and cultural critic, Svend Brinkmann, who takes us on a tour of philosophy, psychology and critical thought. Brinkmann’s premise is that we can enrich our lives by doing more thinking.

By this he means paying careful attention to what we experience. He argues that often we only start to think when we are confronted with something that is unfamiliar – when we are forced to stop and think: ‘thinking is what you do when you reflect intelligently.’ This means thinking for ourselves, or as Kant’s slogan of the Enlightenment suggests, Sapere Aude! ((Dare to know).

Indeed drawing on various philosophers, such as Kant, Iris Murdoch and Hannah Arendt, Brinkmann suggests that we need to escape from the challenge of allowing others to think for us – a highly relevant point in our algorithmic, socially mediated times – and to have the wherewithal to question some of our deeply held convictions (a point also made by Friedrich Nietzsche in The Gay Science and Thomas Nagel in The View from Nowhere).

The act of thinking seems such an obvious thing, given that we do it all the time, but Brinkmann is also making the point that we tend to instrumentalise the process, whereas thoughtfulness is valuable in its own right.

It enables us to wonder, to perceive better the world around us and to reflect critically on our own ideas.  By spending time thinking in this way we create the opportunity to see how things can be different. This is both an inner process and a social one in which we arrive at something meaningful together with others.

Drawing on Arendt’s work, Brinkmann writes,

‘…thinking includes conscience, in the form of attention and thoughtfulness towards other people.’

This seems an important point, because without a consciousness of others and a willingness to engage in dialogue and to learn, thinking can become solipsistic. Indeed, Brinkmann, makes the point that while we have a moral duty to act well, we also have a moral duty to think well – something he describes as necessary ‘to a good and full human existence.’

Think doesn’t aim for academic depth, so you only get a taster of the philosophical and pyschological sources that Brinkmann references, but he uses his sources well to make his arguments, which might encourage one to read further. What he does do neatly, is draw on a method beloved by philosophers, which is the thought experiment.

The book is peppered with these, from the well-worn Trolley problem to Derek Parfit’s intriguing Teletransportation experiment, which encourages us to think about the nature of identity and how interwoven one’s life is with those of others.  As Parfit noted, if we are less focused on personal identity this liberates us and brings us closer to others. The purpose of these experiments in Think is not simply to illustrate the challenge of thinking well, but to get us to practice it: ‘…to encourage critical thinking and reflection.’

For Brinkmann, one of the recommendations in achieving this is to think slow; to have the patience to travel with thought into the past and to project into the future; to avoid the temptation to live in the moment and instead to live in time.

Svend Brinkmann (2024). Think: in defence of a thoughtful life. Translated by Tam McTurk. Polity Press.  125 pages.

Wiley