School of Thinking

The Lessons of the School of Thinking China

Posted on January 20th, 2012 by Michael

The 100 lessons of English Thinking are designed to give Members two things: knowledge and virtuosity.

1. Knowledge

English Thinkers need to know about the history and the three dominant methods of English Thinking:

1. Greek Logic,

2. The Scientific Method, and

3. Cognitive Science.

First, they learn how logic and judgmental thinking and the ideas of the Greek Thinkers–Plato, Socrates and Aristotle–were taken up by the European church through Thomas Aquinas. How these ideas became the cognitive operating system of European thinking and were then spread virally around the world by Christian missionaries and throughout countries like America and Australia 200 to 300 years ago. How, even today, children in these countries are still taught Right/Wrong, Yes/No thinking. And, Western parliaments, legal systems, the media and religious institutions still use pre-Enlightenment dialectic thinking to prosecute their cases and take their decisions.

‘The Tree of Life’ from Charles Darwin’s personal notebook

Second, the great escape from these ideas led to the Enlightenment, Darwinian evolutionary thinking and the Scientific Method–the combined cognitive engine behind the great march of Western science and technology. These methods rely on the value of hypothetical research, repetitive experimentation, measurement and observation and a strategic appreciation of the role of surprise and mistakes. This kind of thinking employs quite different but complementary methods and values to Christian Logic or judgmental thinking. These methods were introduced and spread throughout Western society through universities and scientific journals and the rapid growth of the commercial publishing industry.

Third, since WWII thinkers like Alan Turing empowered the invention of cognitive machines, machines that think, there has been an unprecedented tsunami of interest in computing, networking and the accelerating developments of  cognitive science.

This has led to much faster and more powerful models of thinking and innovation and the more recent developments of software for the brain in countries like America and Australia.

These methods are being adopted by both human and artificial intelligences. They have now spread rapidly through the big global corporations like IBM, Apple and GE via their enterprise training departments. These methods have infected the world wide web and in the last few decades have become a permanent part of Western education systems from primary schools to tertiary institutions.

The 100 lessons of English Thinking simply and clearly show and tell Members how to understand these three dominant methods and how to apply them. They also contrast them with the methods of Confucian Thinking so as to make comparisons and to better understand the differences.

2. Virtuosity

Knowledge without skills is pointless when it comes to English Thinking. So, for 16 weeks Members are given daily opportunities through PRR (practise, repetition, rehearsal) over the course of these 100 lessons to transfer these skills into their own personal and daily life.

The unique goal of this program is to ensure that Members become SKILLED in the daily use of English Thinking.

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2 Responses to “The Lessons of the School of Thinking China”


  1. Neville Says:

    Anything that will help us adapt our prior education and learn more about Confusion thinking should prove very helpful to ones personal growth.
    Confucius was a master at helping people think and from what I’ve learned over the last few years reading of him, seemed far ahead of anything I previously thought I knew.

  2. rogi Says:

    One field in which the Oriental knowledge acquisition process differs from the western ditto is the way facts are converted into knowledge, and v.v. Western people gather facts, try to understand how these are obtained and combined into larger units, ultimately into a state of the human mind called knowledge (or knowing). Oriental people enjoy cramming and packing enormous quantities of knowledge into their heads. After that they gradually discover how that knowledge was arrived at and what relationships hold between individual facts. Both approaches have their advantages, disadvantages and uses, but the western approach, in my opinion, is results in more flexibility and greater creativity.