thinking too much??

mariechen said:

i get this a lot:​

you think too much!
don't overanalyse
you're way too deep

have any of you ever been given this?
and do you think one can think too much? reasons?

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No one cannot think too much, but we can overanalize and make the simple into the complicated.

You cannot think too much, but you can think wrongly. If your mind takes an illogical turn and you do not notice, you can be thinking some pretty bizarre things before someone points it out.

DailyBlessings said:

You cannot think too much, but you can think wrongly. If your mind takes an illogical turn and you do not notice, you can be thinking some pretty bizarre things before someone points it out.

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I agree but everyone thinks wrongly, just on different things and to a different degree.

mariechen said:

i get this a lot:​

you think too much!
don't overanalyse
you're way too deep

have any of you ever been given this?

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Here, here. From people who think too little.

and do you think one can think too much? reasons?

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Well, I think there are certain situations in which thinking is not really helpful or even an obstacle.
But if someone says this in a discussion it usually means: "I´ve run out of arguments, but rather than admitting it, I will find someone else to blame."

mariechen said:

have any of you ever been given this?

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I've seen it. There's too much anti-intellectualism in the culture. Most people don't think enough or deeply enough. If they think that you are thinking too much, it's really their loss, not yours.

The only time I might agree with such an assessment is if someone thinks obsessively about worries or fears. In that case, I would not recommend thinking less, but about thinking more positively and constructively.


eudaimonia,

Mark

I think I think too much. Often I'm walking around doing something but thinking about some philosophical issue at the same time causing me to forget what I was doing, or do something completely subconsciously that may not be what I intended to do in the first place, or completely miss out on things people say to me. It can have pretty funny results really. I also have a tendency to sometimes overlook simple solutions to some problems, instead trying to find some complicated solution, which is pretty annoying.

mariechen said:

i get this a lot:​

you think too much!
don't overanalyse
you're way too deep

have any of you ever been given this?
and do you think one can think too much? reasons?

Click to expand...

If anyone is thinking so much that they forget to get out there and have a life, then yes, they are thinking too much.

However, if what they are thinking about is life, and their place in it, then it is not possible to overdo this, or to learn too much about oneself. Best done by reading about other people's search for meaning, rather than in isolation, imo.

In agreement with what Eudaimonist has said, it has to do with an anti-intellectualistic culture, and more: to be in the presence of a person who is willing to contemplate the assumptions of the accepted metaphysics of social convention makes him a pestilence precisely because society is too fearful to think through what might lead them to a transition, and transition involves pain, not to mention a possible conclusion of agnosticism on whatever subject or value is before them, which leads to a rejection by society, for nobody likes people who don't know their standing in the world, much less stand in agreement with them. "You think too much" -- that is, don't run ahead of me and possibly secretly conclude something different than I do, thus forcing me to consider my own beliefs. After all, it isn't truth people for the most part want, but expedience. Truth only works according to its relative expedience.

elman said:

I agree but everyone thinks wrongly, just on different things and to a different degree.

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This is most certainly true.

Opethian said:

I think I think too much. Often I'm walking around doing something but thinking about some philosophical issue at the same time causing me to forget what I was doing, or do something completely subconsciously that may not be what I intended to do in the first place, or completely miss out on things people say to me. It can have pretty funny results really.

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I ran into a parked car that way, once. Well actually, twice.

Ignorance is a warm fuzzy blanket. People just love to hide under it. If you question too much, you are threatening to take that away...and all the little minds will surely resent you for it.

mariechen said:

i get this a lot:​

you think too much!
don't overanalyse
you're way too deep

have any of you ever been given this?
and do you think one can think too much? reasons?

Click to expand...

I for one can think WAY too much. I have an addiction to solving problems and am often drawn to them like a moth to a flame. It's rather pathetic. You should have seen me when I once tried to rationalize irrational numbers. I was nearly incapacitated for a week. Now I have to schedule 'vegging' time for myself to keep from losing it...

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"What the philosophers say about Reality is often as disappointing as a sign you see in a shop window which reads: Pressing Done Here. If you brought your clothes to be pressed, you would be fooled; for only the sign is for sale." - Soren Kierkegaard, from Either/Or

"Philosophy is a study which lets us be unhappy more intelligently" - Anonymous

"How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.&#8221; - Soren Kierkegaard

&#8220;The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.&#8221; - Bertrand Russell

&#8220;It is easy in the world to live after the world&#8217;s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.&#8221; &#8211;Ralph Waldo Emerson

Apollonian, your quotes are great, and so right on! I am a very well-read individual who loves scholarly pursuits of the theoretical nature and who thinks a lot about many things- which is why my parents will probably think I'm insane when I tell them I've become a Christian!

BUT- I absolutely REFUSE to be one of those Christians who checks their brain at the church door. Even in my decison to follow Christ, I read stuff, thought about stuff, analyzed stuff intelligently. I know that Christianity is not just facts, it's faith too, so it's hard to explain, but let me just say that I didn't just jump in blindly. I examined all aspects of it before making the decision.

soulsearching1 said:

Apollonian, your quotes are great, and so right on! I am a very well-read individual who loves scholarly pursuits of the theoretical nature and who thinks a lot about many things- which is why my parents will probably think I'm insane when I tell them I've become a Christian!

BUT- I absolutely REFUSE to be one of those Christians who checks their brain at the church door. Even in my decison to follow Christ, I read stuff, thought about stuff, analyzed stuff intelligently. I know that Christianity is not just facts, it's faith too, so it's hard to explain, but let me just say that I didn't just jump in blindly. I examined all aspects of it before making the decision.

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It's nice to find a smart person who beleives in God. Can you explain to us why you believe in God, and why you believe in the Christian God specifically? But I'm much more interested in the former question than the latter.

Anytime anyone wants to talk about anything involving serious thought or contemplation, please feel free to PM me. Or if anyone uses AIM anymore, feel free.

AIM: Apollonian42

RecoveringPhilosopher said:

It's nice to find a smart person who beleives in God. Can you explain to us why you believe in God, and why you believe in the Christian God specifically? But I'm much more interested in the former question than the latter.

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Well, I'll give you the very short version, as I'm at work. For the record, I was never an atheist- I always had a sense that there was something "bigger" than us, but never really thought much about it. Didn't grow up in the church, parents aren't religious, though I know at least my mom believes in God (not Jesus, though). But we didn't really discuss it at home.

Basically, a whole bunch of circumstances had led to it. The people that I've been exposed to here in DC- many are Christian, and as I've grown to know them and trust them as friends, there is just something obviously "different" about many of them- a certain friend in particular. Might sound cheesy but you can just "see" Jesus working in her everyday. She's amazing. And it's not phony, there's no agenda there, she's not brainwashed. Coupled with the stuff I read in grad school- a lot of philosophy and theory and while much of it appeals to me and makes sense, in a logical way (and some of it I even agree with), it just always felt like there was something missing. But one of the most striking things to me was out of a situation with the guy I was dating at the time- we'd hit a rough spot, and all of a sudden, I felt compelled to read the Bible- and no matter how hard I tried to be objective in my reading, it just smacked me in the face as truth. I can't really explain it anymore than that. Everything just kind of made sense, like that was how it was supposed to be all along.

I continued to read other works- "Mere Christianity" was especially convincing because it spoke about it in a language that made a lot of sense to me. I could go through the book and pull out specifics, if I had it in me, but the thing was, the logical argument that CS Lewis was making was lining up with the argument that I was formulating in my own head.

Before I accepted Christ, I had one particular day in church where I just plain old felt "moved" and it wasn't like anything I'd ever experienced- and I'm usually pretty skeptical about feelings.

That's not the whole picture, and I'm sure that I didn't explain it in a way that might make sense to you. I don't have all the answers yet, but we're not really supposed to- it's a process.

If you are curious about "being moved" and other such events, try reading "The Screwtape Letters" next. CS Lewis pains an ingenious portrayal of how the spiritual underworld is trying to undermine the clarity and virtue of human thought to the ultimate end of damnation.

I'm rereading it for the second time in a graduate study. It's still very good to reread because you pick up on different things in it at different points in your life.

Apollonian said:

If you are curious about "being moved" and other such events, try reading "The Screwtape Letters" next. CS Lewis pains an ingenious portrayal of how the spiritual underworld is trying to undermine the clarity and virtue of human thought to the ultimate end of damnation.

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Yeah, it's been recommended to me by quite a few people actually, once I told them that I'd read Mere Christianity. I do keep meaning to pick up a copy at the library...

I'm often told I think to much. I tell people that they think to little and then present evidence that they would not be able to pass an 8th grade test in the 1800s. Plus then, you can always mention Thomas Jefferson who could read in 7 languages and had a library of about 20,000 books. He wasn't even a genius.