Think In Defense of a Thoughtful Life

A defining feature of being human is our ability to think. We refer to ourselves, after all, as homo sapiens. But in a world where experiencing and achieving as much as possible is the number one preoccupation, there is little room for reflection. Technology is also making everything easier, eroding the need for us to think at all.

Of course deep, critical thinking can be difficult, sometimes painful, and it demands time. But it is fundamental to our well-being.  In this new book, bestselling philosopher and psychologist Svend Brinkmann argues for a return to the thoughtful life, where we learn to think well, to think deeply, to lose ourselves in reverie and tune in to our inner voice.  By spending time in our thoughts and letting them wander freely, we will discover that thinking is one of the most enriching things we can do in life – and one of the most human too.

Svend Brinkmann lived quietly as a professor of psychology at Aalborg University until he published Stand Firm which became an overnight bestseller and quickly established him as a leading public intellectual and cultural critic.  Winner of the prestigious Rosenkjær prize, Svend travels widely to host events and lecture on the key problems of modern life.  In 2019 he published the acclaimed The Joy of Missing Out. He has also appeared in various television documentaries, and presented Danish television’s Live Fast! programs and the Meaningful Life series on Danish Radio 1.

Introduction

1. What do you think?

2. Why has it become difficult to think?

3. Happiness is a thoughtful life

4. Thinking as formation

5. Where does thinking come from?

6. How to think

Notes