Lesson 2 The origins of thinking

Divide the text into logical parts and find the main thought of each part. Make a plan of the text. Retell it in accordance with the plan.

Read the following text and get ready to discuss it.

When we use the word “thinking”, we can mean quite a number of different things. We might mean, for instance, the pondering or reflecting on an issue which we often associate with intellectual activities such as philosophy. Alternatively, we might mean thinking abouta problem, like the best way to get to the hospital in time for a clinic appointment. Sometimes, we use it to mean daydreaming: “I was just thinking how nice it would be to win lots of money.” Or we might mean the process of making a decision: “I don't know whether I'll be going to that party. I'll think about it.” These are all very different kinds of mental activities, which we call by the same name:thinking.

But what is thinking? Many psychologists have tried to define just exactly what we mean when we use the term, but it is a task which turns out to be very hard. Osgood, in 1953, defined thinking as “the internal representation of events”, which is rather vague, but probably a definition which few psychologists would disagree with. This way of defining thinking though, means that there is an extremely broad range of mental activities which could be called thinking. A dog, for instance, going into a house where it used to live and walking straight to the place where it used to keep its bones, would be said to have some kind of internal representation of events – so we would have to include its mental activity as thought. Some psychologists would find this acceptable, and some would insist that what the dog is doing is not “really” thinking at all.

7. Work in pairs and find all the definitions of “thinking” given in the text

8. Do you agree that “thinking the internal representation of events”? If not explain your disagreement.

10. Define the term “thinking” as you understand it.

1. Study the following words:

mismatch [@mis'mWtG], v – не подходить друг другу

originate [B'ridFineit]– 1. давать начало, порождать; 2. брать начало, происходить

a discrepancy [dis'krepBnsi] n – различие, несходство, разногласие

2. Make the derivatives from the following words:

To move, image, to think, to adapt, behave

3. Write the three forms of the following verbs:

Put, find, think, arise, see, understand, be, know, have, write, read, take, hold, find, say

4. Give the Russian equivalents to the following words and word combinations. Use your dictionary if necessary:

biological urges, biological process, images of objects, an infant, process of adaptation, internal image, adaptation to the environment, to achieve a goal, current behaviour, a discrepancy, association, internal representations

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27