How much value are you willing to place on your freedom to think independently ?

Question

confusion comes when useing another's thinking. the mind is not a toy though many tend to treat it as such.

Answer 1

What empirical evidence do you have that you think independently?

Answer 2

All your thoughts come form external incidents. They dont pop out of thin air they are the result of things you have been exposed to and they way your brain has developed. In this sense no thought is independent from external influences.

But by independent thinking if you mean the ability of one to think outside the box, say what they want to and to take a different point of view on things then that is of a very high importance.

I believe this sort of independent thought is how humanity can progress..

Answer 3

It's the most important freedom you can have and, next to the ability to love, the ability to think independently is the most valuable quality you can have. Without that you can't grow as a person either intellectually or emotionally. It's the best quality you can pass on to your children. Sometimes, you may think it's a curse because it makes decisions more difficult. That's just growing pains. No one can take away your independent thinking from you unless you let them.

Answer 4

Humans always pride themselves to be a higher species because of their ability to think and make decisions. In my opinion, the ability to think is starting to get in the way of our lives. Because people think, and everyone think differently, quarrels and fights are started. Because people think, their school essays get discredited; students are not supposed to think, they are supposed to 'think' like people of the past who had written some books or some form of evidence and include those in the essays. Because people think, those who don't think have to conform to the ideas of the former. Because people think, they cannot come to a decision about some things and it will always be there, never-ending, never gonna be solved. Because people think. Too much in fact. Wouldn't it be good if everyone just do things without thinking too much? Go for it. On impulse. On instinct. Would that make things better? Look what has all the thinking done to us. Yes, we have the technology, the entertainment and everything else which people of the past did not have but we no longer have the simplicity in people. I'm not saying that people in the past did not think but they were smarter. They don't think so much. What's the point of thinking so much and still no conclusion and decision could be made? Doesn't that make you feel worse?

Bottomline: we think too much. Don't k. To whoever this is applicable to.

Answer 5

If we assume that we are thinking independently but not speaking so, then I would place all the value in the world. Speaking independently, however, is a matter of personal choice no matter what they say.
The mind is an universe but very dangerous when it is out of balance and not synchronised.

My mind is currently a toy without batteries, so don't mind me :)

Answer 6

Your question really doesn't make any sense.

The value I place on thinking at all has no price. You cannot put a price on the value of your thoughts.

Now...what in the world are you talking about with this "confusion" and using another's thinking? And the brain being a toy?

Are you--on drugs or something?

Answer 7

Enough to fight for it for people I will never meet and probably don't deserve the right, but then that's one thing America was founded for. I served so others could never know the burdens of having to fight for their freedoms, even those that don't deserve that. Free thinking is why America exists. So next election think long and hard before you vote, then go out and vote. And pray for a president that will not forget he is just a man elected to office by other men and no more.

Answer 8

I place a lot of value on my freedom to think independently, but I think it's a misnomer to force someone to think independently; if that's the case, they're not thinking independently, they're just thinking dependent upon one's assistance of independence!

People can have their followings and simplicities as long as no one tries to force me to think a certain way. ACTIONS on the other hand, well, that's a bit different.

Answer 9

Very important. I suffer from chronic migraine and lately resilient depression. My psycho-pharmacologist suggested electric shock therapy. I read about how it might damage your thinking abilities. That, for me, would be an example of not thinking independently, because of a result of foreign interference. I said to myself, rather live in this horrible pain for the rest of my life, than risk losing any of my cognitive power.

Answer 10

Independent thought is a form of freedom.

What you could say instead is, would you prefer your body bound in chains, or your mind?

As for it being confusing, there is no confusion in letting someone do your thinking for you. It's no way to live, mind you, but there's no confusion there.

Answer 11

my life.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
—Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
Inaugural address

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
—Thomas Paine
The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

Freedom is a muscle...you have to exercise it.
—Roy Scheider, 1993
on SeaQuest, DSV


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