O my Luve’s like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June
Robbie Burns
My life does not only consist of facts and logic. I listen to music, watch films and plays, appreciate beauty, read novels and poetry. I have a heart as well as a head, I engage with my surrounding culture.
We feel things. Our feelings are intimately connected with our thoughts. I do not think it is possible to say conclusively which one causes the other. Certainly, thoughts can arouse emotions. If I hear sad news I feel sad: if good news then I am happy.
But sometimes the feeling seems to come first: I may feel a bit ‘down’ and follow that with melancholy thoughts, which may make me feel more down (or provide a strange kind of comfort).
It is complex, but for our purposes here what matters is that most of my thinking is about ‘me and the world’ and is connected with those hormonal and biochemical changes in the body that we experience as feelings. Logically, what matters is that it is a kind of thinking that has the Self – myself – at the centre. It is the world as it relates to me (and I relate to it).
From a strictly logical point of view, the best name for this kind of thinking is ‘subjective thinking’. This highlights how very different it is from objective thinking. On a day to day basis, a possibly better name is ‘emotional thinking’, as it is nearly always accompanied by emotions which are significant to it.
At its simplest, subjective thinking concerns likes and dislikes. I move towards things that I like and that produce positive feelings, and fight or move away from things that produce negative feelings.
Beyond that it gets more complicated. How is it that music is so powerful, and for most of us an essential dimension of life? Metaphors and stories have far more influence than statistics on nearly all of us. We are emotional beings and an essential part of culture and education is to educate our emotions.
It is the ‘default’, the ever present stream of consciousness of our lives. It takes an effort to put subjectivity aside and think objectively.
By its nature, subjective thinking cannot be measured the way objective thinking can. There are clear rights and wrongs with objective thinking, but subjective thinking by definition involves the person’s subjectivity. Yet this does not mean that some subjective thinking is not ‘better’ than others.
It could be that my life has been very constricted. I could have suffered abuse as a child and known mainly the emotions of fear and hatred. I could have been deprived of any access to culture and so view things outside my limited experience with fear and suspicion.
It would be perverse to argue that in such a case my subjective thinking is as rich or well developed as that of someone who has experienced much love and had enjoyed many rich cultural experiences of Art and beauty. It is clear that one person’s subjective thinking could be better developed than that of someone else even if there is no completely objective way of measuring this.
Furthermore, subjective thinking can clearly be educated and developed. For example, it is surely unarguable that Art engages the emotions in a purposeful and significant way that feels meaningful to us.
If I gaze at Botticelli’s Primavera, listen to Bach’s B Minor Mass or watch a good performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night I am aware of having a rich, deep and complex emotional (as well as intellectual) response.
Of course this can also happen while reading a popular novel, at the cinema or listening to a favourite musician.
My emotions are being educated, stretched, challenged and taken into new, more complex areas along with the thoughts that accompany them. My emotional/subjective thinking is being developed.
We use words like ‘depth’ and ‘richness’ to convey the difference between a ‘shallow’ view and one that goes ‘beneath the surface’. In other words we find ourselves using metaphorical language to explore this territory and try to communicate it to others.
Our subjective thinking is a core, essential part of who we are. It provides motivation for everything we do. And it can be developed and improved throughout our lives.
Its limitation is that it is not open to measurement. How we feel about something is not necessarily an accurate guide to what is, objectively, happening in the world.
It is also vulnerable to manipulation. At a very basic, biological level, we are social beings who seek status and approval from others, especially those with high status. This can give a good feeling.
It is then very easy to believe that what makes us feel good is the same as what is actually doing good in the world.
This is magnified greatly when there are many other people who all seem to be feeling and thinking the same way.
It might be that what is making us feel good is doing good, or it might not be. The only way to find out is through employing objective thinking. The Objective Thinking part of this site explores this theme with real examples.