The Art of Thinking

The philosopher and founder of the Philosophical Library explores the nature of human thought, motivation, and logic.

In The Art of Thinking, philosopher Dagobert D. Runes lays out his views on the relationship between logic and emotion. He argues that the human thought process is essentially alike from one person to another—and that if it was not, society would cease to function. What accounts for our diversity of views, however, is the role emotion plays in our formulation of propositions.

Runes analyzes the underlying emotional motivations in the precepts, concepts, and attitudes of modern man. As he demonstrates through this series of essays, motivated thinking infiltrates, and often dominates, prevailing patterns of thought in social, religious, cultural, and even scientific organizations.