Active Vs Passive Mind
Active vs Passive Mind
Passive minds wait idly for facts to imprint knowledge onto their brains.
Active minds don't wait. Instead, they constantly seek out knowledge by actively asking intelligent questions in order to discover facts.
But it is important to know that becoming an educated individual, requires more than simply accumulating an ever-increasing number of facts.
To become educated requires the development of a mind, which seeks not only facts, but also their causes.
In ancient Greece, the great philosophers taught that the ability to understand the causes of facts was more important than learning the facts themselves, because the facts change daily, but the underlying causes of facts remain the same.
Classical Greek philosophers taught that the ability to identify causes, was the greatest intellectual endowment; so, its development was seen as the primary purpose of formal education. Aristotle wrote that the best life was one that was devoted to "truth seeking", because the "Truth Seeking Citizen" is always pleasant, successful and interesting.
In order to develop an active mind, it is necessary to learn its three basic rules.
1. The law of Universal Causation.
"Every event is caused by the conditions that preceded it".
That is, there are NO causeless events. Things don't "just happen".
So, if you want to know why something happened, then you must look at the past and examine the conditions that led up to the event.
This is why scientists seek to isolate events, (preferably under conditions that they can control) in order to investigate the specific set of conditions under which the event always occurs, and in the absence of which, it never occurs.
2. The law of cause and effect
"Under the same set of specific causal conditions, the same effect will always occur".
This law implies two other rules:
- "If you want a particular effect to happen, then you must initiate its specific causes". Merely wanting, hoping or praying that something will occur is not enough to make it happen - you must actively discover its causes and put them in place. If you don't initiate the causes, then you won't get the effect you wish for.
- "If you initiate a particular set of causes, then the effects of those causes must inevitably be produced". Which is why nobody can indefinitely escape the painful consequences of their bad habits or wrong actions; bad actions produce bad consequences.
3. Uniformities of coexistence.
Just because two things always occur together, does NOT necessarily mean that they are causally connected, because they may both be the consequence of a SHARED cause. For example, poverty and crime often are seen together, but that does NOT mean:
- Poor people are more likely to be criminals.
- Wealthy people are less likely to be criminals.
- If you give criminals money, they will stop committing crimes.
From the above notes, we can see that the possession of an active mind is NOT a thing of chance, but is the result of a careful study of the rules of effective thinking.
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
If you would like to know more about how to solve problems and achieve goals, please attend our Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Course. Critical thinking empowers business leaders and managers to identify inconsistencies in their plans and replace errors with coherent, logical thought and action.
Blogs by Email
Do you want to receive an email whenever we post a new blog? The blogs contain article 5-10 minutes long - ideal for reading during your coffee break!
Further Reading in Personal Effectiveness
-
Four Personal Effectiveness Training Skills
Four Personal effectiveness training skills In order to get the best from yourself and others what are the skills and knowledge you need to develop? There are many skills relating to personal effectiveness. But we will focus on four essential skills. Four essential personal effectiveness skills. There are four major...
Read Article > -
How can I improve my performance?
How can you improve your performance? Question: Do you think that you have reached the peak of your possible potential? Or rather would you like to think that you have yet to discover and actualise the true extent of your powers? Are you as good as you can get, or have...
Read Article > -
How to Decide
Decisions, decisions! We are faced with them every day. From what to eat, to whether we should change jobs. Instead of keep going over the reasons in your head, use this great method to make your decisions easier.
Read Article > -
Problem Solving Skills
Learning how to analyse problems and working out effective solutions is important to our survival. Teaching problem solving skills to employees will improve workplace efficiency and co-operation between co-workers and customers.
Read Article > -
Personal effectiveness - Emotional intelligence training
Emotional intelligence has two major components. The first element of emotional intelligence training is developing the art of being able to manage your own emotions, so that you are able to achieve the optimum emotional response that is appropriate to the circumstances that face you. The second element of emotional intelligence...
Read Article >
Looking for Personal Development Training?
If you're looking to develop your Personal Effectiveness Skills, you may find this Personal Development Training Course beneficial:
Open Training Course Pricing and Availability
Next Open Course Starts in 3 days, London - Central, places available