Learn To Think Using Thought Experiments: How to Expand Your Mental Horizons, Understand Metacognition, Improve Your Curiosity, and Think Like a Philosopher

by Patrick King

Use the mental tools that the world's greatest thinkers used to generate epiphanies, explore the world, and hone their reasoning.In traditional education, you're taught to recite and regurgitate. Going a step farther, you might learn some critical thinking skills. But what about applying them in the most audacious, fascinating, and inquisitive ways possible with thought experiments?Philosophical and exploratory thinking pushes your boundaries and opens new worlds.Learn to Think Using Thought Experiments is about how to analyze, perceive, and interact with information and situations - all in your mind and imagination. It poses a hypothetical and forces you to engage it and answer questions and reason through arguments you've never known. This book will confuse, frustrate, and ultimately improve your thinking prowess like nothing else, on account of being thrown into the mental deep end. Challenge yourself and you will grow.Improve critical thinking by applying it in innovative and novel ways.Patrick King is an internationally bestselling author and social skills coach. His writing draws of a variety of sources, from scientific research, academic experience, coaching, and real life experience.Become more naturally curious, inquisitive, and Sherlock Holmes-like.- The curious case of two cats and what they teach us about uncertainty.- What choosing between 1 and 5 people says about you.- Why this entire world might just be a dream or simulation.- What a javelin has to do with infinite.- How Zeno's tortoise represents the point where reality and numbers diverge.- How Chinese logicians, beetles, fish, and monkeys demonstrate different angles of reality and perception.Learn to thrive in uncertain situations and contemplate more thoroughly and deeply.Thought experiments are a classic tool that everyone can use, and they enable us to explore more abstract situations and reason through them. Master thought experiments and you can master simply dealing with difficult, uncertain, impossible, or confusing questions and situations. Use the same models and tools that Einstein, Plato, Socrates, Galileo, and Lao-tzu used - and see your thinking prowess grow exponentially.This is the fifth book in the “Clear Thinking and Fast Action” series as listed The Science of Getting How to Beat Procrastination, Summon Productivity, and Stop Self-Sabotage2. The Art of Clear Mental Models for Better Reasoning, Judgment, Analysis, and Learning. Upgrade Your Intellectual Toolkit.3. 10-Minute From Buddhism to Stoicism, Confucius and Aristotle - Bite-Sized Wisdom From Some of History’s Greatest Thinkers4. Practical How to Think Critically, Deconstruct Situations, Analyze Deeply, and Never Be Fooled5. Learn To Think Using Thought How to Expand Your Mental Horizons, Understand Metacognition, Improve Your Curiosity, and Think Like a Philosopher6. Take Rapid Get Productive, Motivated, & Energized; Stop Overthinking & Procrastinating7. Relentless 27 Small Tweaks to Beat Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, Outsmart Distractions, & Do More in Less Time

Genres: Philosophy

160 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 15, 2020

About the author

Patrick King is a Social Interaction Specialist, in other words, a dating, online dating, image, and communication and social skills coach based in San Francisco, California, and has been featured on numerous national publications such as Inc.com. He’s also a #1 Amazon best-selling dating and relationships author with the most popular online dating book on the market, and writes frequently on dating, love, sex, and relationships.

He focuses on using his emotional intelligence and understanding of human interaction to break down emotional barriers, instill confidence, and equip people with the tools they need for success. No pickup artistry and no gimmicks, simply a thorough mastery of human psychology delivered with a dose of real talk, perfected and honed through three years of law school.

Reviews

[Tshebeletso Tjabane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read

I love it when a book makes you think and question everything. It has forever changed my way of thinking and perception.

Thank you

[Aideen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fascinating. It touched on points that I have heard of in my life but never really truly grasped them. Between reading this and watching my favourite sci-fi show "Star Trek: The Next Generation", I found myself pondering a great more than I usually do and I absolutely love it. I hope to continue this thought pattern and develop them accordingly.

[Joshua Boswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking

This is a thought provoking book. It gets the wheels of the mind turning. A short read and well worth it.

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long ago in the mists of forgotten time, I took an elective in philosophy. It was a fairly lightweight course, and made excessive use of pop culture (movies and tv shows) just to help the medicine go down. But in my defense, it was the summertime, and I needed a break after dealing with an intense course load the previous semester.

In this course, we watched an episode of Dr. Who and Jan Werner Fassbinder's "World on a Wire." We also watched the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which the android Data had to make his case that he was sentient and had qualia, else he would perish (or be "switched off" if one didn't accept the premise of his sentience).

It sounds silly, and lightweight, and it was, but you know what? While I didn't learn a lot, that silly course helped me limber up my brain so that when the time came to do more serious thinking, my previously atrophied philosophy muscle was a bit stronger than it otherwise might have been.

"Learn to Think Using Thought Experiments" is a bit like that. It's all here, albeit in a very abbreviated "CliffsNotes" form: the problem of Theseus's ship (if you replace a ship plank by plank, by the time you've replaced every original plank, is it still the same ship?); the classic trolley problem (would you be willing to push one person in front of the train tracks to save several others from dying?); and, of course, the "brains in a vat" quandary that spawned a movie franchise and the shorthand metonymic device of the blue pill versus red pill.

The thought experiments are presented in informal but lucid chapters, each only a few pages in length. If you're the kind of person who likes to read Wittgenstein in the original German, or contemplate the orthographical significance of each letter in the name of the daemon Nomos, then this is going to be very thin gruel. But, if you just want a refresher on some stuff that you learned back in college in a 101 course and then promptly forgot—or, if you're just getting started in college—this is a great, concise, and sort of charming little tome. Highest recommendation, as long as you understand for whom it is intended and the scope of its focus.

[Niall Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun introduction to the power of thought experiments. I didn’t find lots of new stuff here but it was a nice exercise in using thought experiments to better understand self, and the universe.

I did find the author somewhat repetitive, often copying parts of a chapter into a chapter summary verbatim. Even when I did appreciate the summaries.

Definitely worth a read if you’re interested in this topic and want to learn more!

[Rafael Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, easy to read, and basic. The main issue I have with the book is that it does not offer much to learn from. The book cannot decide whether it wants to throw many philosophical dilemmas at you and discuss each or get into this overall discussion about why philosophical thinking is beneficial. Too much time is spent on promoting philosophy rather than actually teaching it.

[Derek Hakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Introduction to Thought Experiments

The first book I have read about thought experiments and metacognitive thinking. Gave me some excellent ideas about which to ponder as well as to use in my own devised thought experiment for my dissertation.

[Gary F Breaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent perspective reference!

[Capone Rios · Rating 3 out of 5]

Redundant?

Now that my brain is wide open, I realize this review may or may not matter...four more words are required

[Varun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Read

New way of thinking about thinking explored. Few examples were also given to explore thinking and thought experiments, good 10-12 examples

[Rahul Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good series of thought experiments.

[Thomas Simonson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the book.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written basic introduction.

[Adam L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Read

As a newbie to critical thinking and thought experiments I was quickly hooked and couldn’t stop reading this book.

There are classic thought experiments with reasoning, as well as questions to engage the reader for plenty of time afterwards. I have certainly spent time thinking about the thought experiments (particularly identity ).

I will certainly read more by this author.