Thinking in the Service of Understanding the World 33derived for the other activities of the human spirit. Unlike
thinking, these can be grouped with other observed ob-
jects and processes. It is part of the peculiar nature of
thinking that it is an activity directed only to the observed
object, and not to the thinker. This is clear from how we
express our thoughts about a thing, compared to how we
express our feelings or acts of will. If I see an object and
recognize it as a table, I do not generally say “I am think-
ing about a table,” but rather “This is a table.” Yet I could
certainly say, “I am pleased with the table.” In the first
case, I am not concerned with communicating that I have
entered into a relationship with the table; but in the sec-
ond case it is precisely this relationship that is significant.
Furthermore, with the statement, “I am thinking about a
table,” I have already entered into the exceptional state
mentioned above, in which I make into an object of obser-
vation something that is always contained within my spir-
itual activity but not as an observed object.
This is the characteristic nature of thinking. The thinker
forgets thinking while doing it. What concerns the thinker
is not thinking, but the observed object of thinking.
Hence the first observation that we make about think-
ing is that it is the unobserved element in our normal spir-
itual life.
It is because thinking is based on our own activity that
we do not observe it in everyday spiritual life. What I do
not produce myself enters my observational field as an
object. I see it as something that arose without me. It con-
fronts me; and I must accept it as the prerequisite for my
process of thinking. While thinking about the object, I am