The Ways We Think: From the Straits of Reason to the Possibilities of Thought

The Ways We Think is concerned with the issue of developing thinking in education. It seeks to move beyond current predominant approaches, which take their cue from a limited conception of both the experience of thinking and the human being who thinks. This approached is referred to throughout the text as rationalistic , designating both its abstracted, disengaged conception of the human being, and its representational, intellectualised image of the ways we think.

In order to offer a more adequate conception of thinking, the author investigates the philosophical accounts of Gilbert Ryle, Martin Heidegger, John Austin and Jacques Derrida. She argues that these thinkers provide accounts that strive to open up the possibilities of human thought, both in the sense of revealing what makes thought happen and what happens when we think. The conclusion explores how thinking education might thereby be reconceived, in ways that are richer than rationalism and indicates how this alternative conception of thought might be translated into the classroom. The result is a method that provides new possibilities and new avenues for an education that takes its cue from the ways we think, in all its variety.

Emma Williams is Assistant Professor in the Department of Education Studies, University of Warwick. She was previously Philosopher–in–Residence at Rugby School, where she taught Philosophy across the curriculum and helped develop interdisciplinary courses for the new A Level Qualification: The Extended Project. She has a background in Philosophy, particularly Post–Kantian European Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Education. Her work explores the themes of language, rationality and subjectivity within the context of education.