Nature_of_Thought

Nature of Thought Paper Jessica Moss PHL/251 June 23, 2010 Richard Pinder Nature of Thought Paper Logic is the study of the methods and principles used in distinguishing correct and incorrect thinking; for an example, a person ability to make sense of something. Logic will be different for each individual. This is due to each individual's upbringing, beliefs, and experiences. The meaning of perception is a person's view of something; for example, humans use perception to interpret knowledge from one's individual perspective using emotion, and opinion. Perception is crucial for determining an individual's knowledge of the subject at hand. Again, perception will be different for each individual, due to the same reasons provided for logic. How important is thinking' We spend all our lives thinking and miss thinking of multiple decisions and ideas. Thinking is a very important process of how our thoughts, when transferred verbally or written on paper, can produce a clearer understanding of our views. The nature of logic as it relates to critical thinking, and my perceptual process have been influenced through sources of enculturation. I have found that my perception can easily be clouded and once that takes place, I find it difficult to think clearly or come to a conclusion. The organization I worked for was technical startup company coming off the success of the 1990's technology boom, and I was making enough money to live comfortably. Of course all good things come to an end, the quarterly feasts and parties gave way to budget cuts and dwindling profits. Then in early 2001 we experienced our first reduction of force in the history of our company. Even though it was only three people that one event started a linty of rumors and panic attacks. Later on that same year, I noticed outside groups looking at our building, counting cubicles and holding all day meetings with the executive team and human recoursesResources. I immediately assumed the worst; they were planning an exit strategy and it was only a matter of time when the doors would close and I would lose my job. My perception could not be further from the truth. When the secret meetings started, I began determining how long I had and what I was going to do once the inevitable happened. Productive days of before were a memory, and everyone, including myself were was to too busy discussing the downfall of the organization, what our severance package would be and what went wrong. This destructive behavior went on for weeks and nothing was accomplished other than a rumor mill website designed by our highly paid engineering staff; until on Friday morning when our CEO called an all company meeting to discuss pressing company business. It was obvious to me that this was it, and I wondered what my severance check was while I walked to the meeting. When I got to the cafeteria the executive team was sitting there smiling as they announced due to budget cutbacks the company has been bought out. And these new individual sitting around this table is the new business owners. My own perceptual process is that I quickly judge situations because of personal biases. Many times I go places or begin to think things and within the first 5 to 10 minutes I can tell if I want to leave or stay or think positively or negatively. Instead of assessing a situation and finding out all of the information needed to make a sound decision, I seem to pre-judge and miss out on many good things . Another type of perception block is when people fail to see others’ points of view. People tend to forget that not everyone shares the same life experiences. Sometimes it is hard for people to walk in someone else’s shoes. This behavior leads to assumptions and biases about others’ behavior. A way to combat this type of perception block is to put aside personal opinions and judge from facts and information. In conclusion, when using logic and perception to think critically, a person obtain a certain skill to have an educated opinion on many situations in life. Because I was so busy thinking about the negative outcome that I believed was going to come from this situation, I didn’t give myself any room to think about some positive outcomes as well. I should have thought more positively and spoken a positive outcome. But, the outcome of my initial thought process was not to think or voice to positive things, instead I thought and voiced the negative. Therefore, the process of my thinking was manipulated by my personal negativity issues. This situation taught me to weigh my options and think positive about things and their outcomes instead of the negative.