Thinking About Thought


Consider what you would want to see before it was too late? How would you look at the world knowing that this was your only chance to see it? Does it really matter?


'Now think about the finite amount of time that you really do have for living, because life itself is the only amount of time that we do get, not just for seeing, but for all experience. And a life span of perhaps eighty years (which itself is by no means guaranteed) within an eternity is a very short space of time indeed.'

What should you think about? What questions do you want to ask? Or, perhaps you shouldn't be asking questions at all? Are all questions a waste of time?

When we die it is because our minds, not our bodies. have gone, and so, if thought is what we actually are during life, the real question is how are you going to present your 'self'?

In what way can you better formulate your existence?

Consider these questions either individually or as a group of questions that are actually about philosophical questions in general. What should we think about and why?


My view is that we do not pay enough attention to the fact that we are going to die. Not in a pessimistic and demoralising way, but in a way that glorifies the wonder of living.

In the knowledge that my own time is limited, the first question I would like to ask is ‘what is the best way to lead my life’? Although this, in true philosophy style, raises other questions that may need to be answered first. Such as: ‘what do I mean by ‘my’ life; what exactly am I; do I even exist in the first place’? What questions make best use of the time you actually have to ask questions? Or is an ‘enlightened’ life one with no questions at all?



I am inclined to think that ultimate use of my thinking time is spent in ‘awe’ and that ‘awe time’ has no room for questions! However, I could only have come to this conclusion by asking myself the question in the first place!

What do you think about thinking?

Ian Dyball



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