Abstract

The central thesis of this dissertation is that a naturalistic theory of thinking provides a philosophically sound basis for the development of thinking skills programs in education, and suggests a new direction for current research in cognitive theory. ;The development of thinking skills curricula is at the top of the national agenda. Most of the programs that have arisen to meet this need, however, are founded on a formalistic, information-processing, model of thinking. I argue that this theory of thinking is overly restrictive and that it ignores the richer capacity of thinking to be a fundamentally creative force in human experience. ;In the early chapters, I explicate the work of John Dewey to demonstrate that a theory of thinking must be situated in a theory of experience. In particular, thinking is primarily a social process and structurally complex, involving both a reflective foreground and a noncognitive background. I extend Dewey's vague analysis of the noncognitive background by explicating Mark Johnson's recent theory of imagination. ;In the central chapters, I examine thinking as a creative process that involves imaginative structures in experience. Creativity is not opposed to thinking, but intrinsically connected to it because of the basic pattern of experience. Creative thinking is an amplification of meanings, rather than a creation ex nihilo. I exemplify this theory through an analysis of metaphor, wherein I argue that metaphors are not primarily linguistic entities, but are indicative of creative processes that connect domains of meaning in experience. ;In the final chapter, I point out the need for skillful thinking that arises from democratic political theory. I argue for a thinking-centered educational curriculum. I then analyze the methods of teaching thinking. I suggest a "community of inquiry" as the ideal environment for developing thinking skills