‘The word cognition comes from the Latin verb meaning ‘to know’. It denotes the knowledge’ or concepts ‘we are able to draw upon to make sense of our environment’ (Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology, 2004).

 

 

Looking back, up to the age of 14 years old I didn’t really have any strong ideas or concepts, not that I can recall anyway. I vaguely remember being adamant once to a relative that smoking was ‘very bad’, and declaring that ‘I would never smoke’. I distinctly remember it as they retorted, ‘really, never? Just wait until you’re a bit older’. This really irritated me, as I thought ‘no, I will definitely never smoke- that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it!’

 

Of course by the age of 16 I had already tried my first cigarette.

 

From about 14-17 years old I thought I knew everything about literally everything- from what I wanted to be when I was older, to why global poverty exists. I was oozing confidence and had no qualms about making others aware of my thoughts.

 

This didn’t last though. I can’t put my finger on exactly when it was, but my simple, subjective world came crashing down and so did my confidence in the opinions I thought I had formed. Instead, it was as though my thoughts and opinions had become giant puzzles in which I was collecting the pieces. By the age of 23 I had at best only completed a small part of the puzzle, and even then there were lots of gaps.

 

 

The Conundrum

Studying Anthropology at university filled me with dual emotions in relation to my quest to form opinions and understand things, that of ‘liberation’ and ‘frustration’. The sense of liberation came from learning how thoughts are socially constructed, meaning it doesn’t matter if what I think is different to that of someone else. We don’t have to battle our opinions to find out who is right, as there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in the first place. However, this also left me frustrated and overwhelmed by the fact that the pictures in my puzzles would never be complete, never presenting me with the absolute truth, no matter how many pieces I collected. This is because for something to be true, it needs to be believed by everyone, and the chances of people living in different social environments around the world constructing similar thoughts and beliefs, is undoubtedly slim (not necessarily impossible!).

 

This can be terribly frustrating, as it is an innate desire of human beings to ‘make sense’ of things, whether it is through science, religion, atheism or secularism. It therefore goes against this instinct to accept, that actually we probably never will do.

 

As difficult as it is, I would argue that in taking this stance a person is better equipped to become a ‘Global Citizen’. Surely if everyone has an awareness that what they believe, think and how they make sense of the world, is a construct of some kind, well then isn’t that something that everyone is the world can agree on? Likewise this would lead me to view other people’s thoughts and beliefs, as distant as they may seem to ones own, with respect and a regard for them as being of equal worth.

 

The Challenge

 

When speaking to the numerous different people I speak to everyday: strangers, friends, family and colleagues, I am often dismayed at how readily people dismiss information that falls outside of what they regard to be true. Likewise, if they regard their opinion to be particularly strong, they will interpret and reshape new information in a way that supports this opinion, in turn dismissing anything that may challenge it to be ‘false’. This is what psychologists term ‘confirmation bias’.

 

Let me give you an example, which I’m sure will be familiar to some of you….

 

The person who doesn’t ‘do’ charity

 

They decide that they don’t give to charity, as there is no point. In fact, they heard that most of the money is ‘wasted’ on administration, and very little goes to the people who need it.

 

Now, I regard this argument to be flawed in many respects, but my point is, that if you don’t want to see the flaws you just wont look for them. Instead, you will embrace the information for the validation it gives, to the thing that you want to believe.

 

 

Time for a new type of ‘thinking culture’

 

‘What people know, includes what they have learnt from others and what they will pass on to the next generation. This is what Anthropologists call culture’ (Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology, 2004).

 

What gets me so excited about Development Education is that at the heart of it, it is about harnessing a ‘culture of enquiry’. Culture is fluid and takes the shape of the prevailing thoughts, practices and beliefs of the majority. It is vital now more than ever, as we increasingly live in a globalised world, where we have to make sense of some pretty tough issues such as climate change, wars in the Middle East, the credit crunch just to name a few, that we don’t generate a culture of obstinacy and apathy.

 

This is by no means an easy option. As I said earlier it requires an acceptance that you may never find an absolute, all encompassing, right answer or solution to anything. You must accept that things will always be slightly uncertain and just when you think you might be on the right track, something could happen that completely refutes your previous thoughts. Likewise, there may never be complete agreement on anything, making consensus within society much harder to come by. This greater disparity of thoughts should not however lead to increased conflict, as the culture of enquiry is in essence also one of respect for difference. Furthermore, this culture of enquiry would enhance critical thinking, the desire for new information, humility, and the desire to engage with global issues.

 

I will finish by saying that I am fully aware that I have probably argued myself out of an argument! Whilst I am following a certain line of thought, developing a particular concept, I appreciate that it is nevertheless subjective and simply the product of my particular education, environment and social encounters!