Brain, Mind and Philosophical Thinking

This article aims to shed light on the decisive and influential role of the learner’s mental functioning in the process of learning and acquiring the tools of philosophical thinking, which are mainly represented in problematization, conceptialization, and argumention. Philosophical thinking, as a rational and conscious thinking, requires the learner to acquire and employ a set of skills such as: questioning, criticism and argumentation, analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalization. However, the acquisition and employment of these various skills inevitably depends on his ability to process information; Attention, selection, storage, retrieval, and use. Accordingly, it has become necessary for the philosophy teacher to understand the nature of the learner’s cognitive functioning and mental activity, which the cognitive and emotional dimensions are mixed in a dynamic unit that cannot be separated or divided. Despite the importance of memory systems in the process of processing information, severe emotional pressures, such as anxiety and stress, can paralyze the ability of the memory system and hinder its performance of its functions, which negatively affects the process of learning and acquiring the tools of philosophical thinking and its basic competencies