Thinking as Art

Thinking is art. It is not a science. It is somewhat like alchemy. It is not like swimming. Although it is fluid. It is not hard like rock. It aims to flow in between one thing and another, except when it doesn’t. In those cases it aims at something in particular. A bullseye. A shiny medal. Then it becomes straight as an arrow and as sharp as one too. So what is it?

Art is expressive. That is why thinking is art. Thinking expresses thought. Thought is its own subject matter. When thinking is about something there is the thing itself and your thinking itself. When you think, you express what you think about the thing itself. And you think to yourself that it was a true, or authentic, expression. This may not always be the case, but attempt for it to be.

You can think with others or by yourself. Thinking with others is necessarily collaborative. There will be multiple expressions. Just as a piece of art made by multiple people is a product of their collaboration, so too is collaborative thinking. Some people don’t like multiple expressions, they only believe in their own. But new and original thought is produced by the synthesis of unexpected information. Openness and a desire to learn. Old and repetitive thought, closedness and incuriousness, serve their purposes. They ground the world in a structure. And structures can be leaned on in times of need. Old and new both shine like the sparkling sea.

Thinking with others opens the possibility of interruption. Interrupting one’s own sequence of thought can be useful if the interruption advances the line of thought. It is useful if it stops the thinker from proceeding down a meandering and pointless rabbithole. Interruption is unhelpful if it interferes with the clarity of one’s thinking. If it brings up needless caveats or disrupts the creative thinking process, it impedes the act of creation. Creation must always come first, editing later.

Every conclusion arrived at, whether thought in solitude or with others, gestates. It does not stand idly by. Time changes art. It wears away. It gets reinterpreted. It gets forgotten. Thought comes and goes. It resists containment. Holding onto thought is like holding onto the wind. It is a fool’s errand. Do not hold onto the wind, create a glider. Glide, glide, glide.

Two people can create similarly appearing art. It can be arrived at through many means. Same with thought. You and I may think the same thought but the processes behind the curtain are far dissimilar and far unknown, perhaps. The fact that our thought and our art is similar is good. It means we are converging on something important. Or at least something mutual. You don’t always have to be unique.

Imitation in both thought and art is commendable if not to use it instrumentally. I may imitate you to see what it is like or to prove a point. But to abandon one’s own thought is a disservice to oneself and those around them. The previous sentence gets at the heart of the matter: thinking as art can serve others. It need not be self-indulgent.