Scientific Thinking - Past Paper (English)

Scientific Thinking 01 The Basic Functions of Human Mind The brain is a complex organ that controls thought, memory, emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger and every process that regul...

Scientific Thinking 01 The Basic Functions of Human Mind The brain is a complex organ that controls thought, memory, emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger and every process that regulates our body. The mind is the set of abilities responsible for all mental phenomena. The issue of the nature of the relation between mind and brain is called the mind-body problem. The basic functions of the mind are: Thinking is the part of the mind that figures things out. It makes sense of life’s events. It creates the ideas through which we define situations, relationships and problems. Feelings are created by thinking — evaluating whether the events of our lives are positive or negative. Feelings continually tell us: “This is how I should feel about what is happening in my life. Wanting allocates energy to action, in keeping with what we define as desirable and possible. There is an intimate, dynamic interrelation between thinking, feeling, and wanting. Each is continually influencing the other two. 1 Scientific Thinking 01 The variety of activities called 'thinking' includes at least: reflecting, anticipating, deciding, imagining, remembering, wondering, pondering, intending, believing, disbelieving, meditating, understanding, inferring, predicting and introspecting. All thinking has some subject matter. It does not make sense to say there is thinking that is not about anything. Many of our actions are instinctive or automatic responses to certain situations We begin to think when we are confronted with a difficulty, perplexity, or problem, that is, an unfamiliar situation to which we have no response ready Thinking therefore should first of all be distinguished from day-dreaming. Thinking is essentially purposive, directed, constructive and controlled. The problem may be a practical or a theoretical one. Thinking is the highest mental activity present in man. All human achievements and progress are simply the products of thought. The evolution of culture, art, literature, science and technology are all the results of thinking. Thought and action are inseparable - they are actually the two sides of the same coin. 2 Scientific Thinking 01 :‫** أهم الكلمات‬ Eng. Ar. Organ )‫عضو (في الجسد‬ makes sense of life’s events ‫يعطي ألحداث الحياة معنى‬ figures things out ‫يفهم األشياء‬ evaluate ‫يقيم‬ allocate ‫يخصص الموارد‬ reflecting = meditating ‫تأمل‬ anticipating = predicting ‫تنبؤ‬ inferring ‫استدالل‬ Distinguish ‫يميز بين‬ purposive ‫هادف‬ directed ‫موجه‬ constructive ‫بناء‬ controlled ‫خاضع للتحكم‬ instinctive ‫غريزي‬ automatic responses ‫استجابات آلية‬ 3