Process of Thinking and Decision Making: Introduction

As I have stated in the opening statement of my blog,” only thinking will save us from drowning in the ocean of misinformation”.

I further stated that I am not a cognitive psychologist, neither am I a logician, a neuroscientist nor a philosopher, my field of study is medicine. Therefore, I will address the process of thinking and decision making from a medical stand point.

My interest in the thinking process comes from my medical studies and 40 years of practice in clinical medicine. During this time, I repeatedly used clinical thinking principles to solve my patient's health problems. In spite of my vast experience, I still worry that I might be misunderstood when I write about the process of thinking. In fact, I feel like Don Quixote attacking the wind mills. I know that thinking process is very complex, very abstract and not very well understood even by neuroscientists.

I have read many books about thinking, but I became more confused, for I have more questions than answers.  I thought I must make a list of these questions in order to provoke more thinking and to show my readers how difficult thinking is: "What is thinking? How do we think? How does thinking start? Does thinking occur in the brain or in the mind? What are the neuro-cellular and molecular mechanisms of thinking? What are the components of thinking? Why thinking attempts start with emotions? What is the role of mental environment on our thinking? Is artificial intelligence (AI) the same as thinking?

I shall leave most of these questions for experts to answer. I will only use my clinical thinking experience and try to answer some of these questions in a continuum series, as I see it:

1- Definition of thinking

2-What are the components of thinking?

3- What is the difference between thoughts and thinking?

4-How does thinking process start?

5-What are the neuro-cellular a molecular mechanism of thinking?

6-What are the relationships between Nature’s Laws and thinking?

7-How many types of thinking are there?

8-General principles of medical thinking and medical decision making,

9-Why thinking attempts always provoke emotions first?

10-What is the role of our mental environment on our thinking?

11-Thinking in motion with case presentations,

12-The joy and perils of too much thinking.