Assignment 1

Michael
Moore

In the Analect 2:15 Confucius comments on the relationship between thinking and
learning. He says, To learn without thinking is unavailing; to think without learning is
dangerous. This statement caught my attention because at first it sounded paradoxical. How can
one learn without thinking or think without learning? Obviously, whenever anyone learns
something new some amount of thinking must be involved. As human beings we constantly
assign subconscious judgements and evaluations concerning everything our brain processes
throughout our lives. When one hears someone say, Its a cold and windy day in New York
City, this information is not stored as a string of words and letters to be saved in a persons
brain. Rather, it brings about in the persons mind the physical sensations of cold and wind, the
memories the person has had of cold and windy days in the past, and images of New York City.
Its clear that this is a very low level of thinking and almost certainly not what Confucius was
referring to. What Confucius seems to be referring to here is a substantial understanding of and
reflection on the information that has been learned. Thus, most of the learning people do in their
daily lives probably falls into the category of learning without thinking, partly because of the
mundane nature of most of the information that one encounters in life, but also because people
often do not take the time to really understand the information they have been presented with.
This appears to be the message of the first half of this Analect; that people should strive to
engage with, meditate on and understand the information they are presented with throughout
their lives. The second and rather more ominous half of the Analect asserts that thinking without
learning can be perilous. Again we must ask Is it really possible to think without having some
learning taking place? At first thought it seems very unusual for a person to think very deeply
about something and not have learned something, however, the course of human history has
shown exactly the opposite. Countless times throughout history, man has used his intellect in
scientific endeavors to try to better understand the world to improve his life and satisfy his
curiosity about the world. This thinking has led to the greatest achievements in human history
like the discovery of the atom, modern medicine, and the moon landing. However, this same
thinking has given human beings the sort of perilous power alluded to in the Analect in the
form nuclear weapons, climate change and perhaps now the greatest existential threat we have
ever faced, artificial intelligence. It seems that the message of the second half of this Analect is
that the thinking man does is not inherently bad, in fact it can even lead to the most amazing
accomplishments humans are capable of conceiving. It is only when we do not understand the
new dangers and responsibilities inherent in these great innovations from past experiences and
failures that great dangers are possible.