Question

What does Wallace mean in the following sentences: “ Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience” (para.5) What view of “thinking” does he seem to be arguing against?

Answer 1

Wallace is arguing against thinking being of natural, physical, development. He is viewing thinking as a taught function like literacy is, humans have the ability to do it, but have to be taught how to do it to learn how to do it. He reemphasizes a nurture argument by stating, "Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think." How one focuses their mind and their attitude are in the "driver's seat" of their thinking, which will affect the information one takes in, the information that they are thinking with.