What book would you recommend for someone going into college? That's what a friend who is buying Christmas presents asked me. I didn't hesitate: the latest book by Ricardo Piñero (Professor of Aesthetics and Theory of the Arts at the University of Navarra): In praise of thinkingwhich could also have been titled "Five keys to thinking with a magnanimous heart".
"Thinking is a way of getting to know, to taste, it is a way of tasting, of learning to discern, of accepting and denying, of protesting and admitting, of sharing what we are in order to be, among all of us, better". In other words, thinking is not something obvious.
Through works of art, entertaining writing and quotations from philosophers, the author puts us in front of five themes that underpin the reflective attitude: dignity, connectivity, solidarity, sustainability and perfectibility. All in 109 pages that are quickly finished and leave the impression that the brevity was deliberate.
Piñero writes to enliven your curiosity, stimulate your spirit and invite you to stay around the topics; he only puts the ladder of the plane, but after you climb it, it's your turn to be the pilot.
Why think about these issues? Because although we know they are unavoidable, we avoid them. This is the drama of our century. We need to be more aware of how valuable and worthy we are; we have forgotten that the best ideas require us to relate to others.
We have let ourselves be... perhaps it is because as soon as we glimpse discomfort we lose the desire to explore, but then what are we living for? It is time to wake up, because if we decide to exercise our thinking and participate in the great conversations of our time, then we will be able to sow and bear fruit. Fruits, many fruits, why can't we fill the world with fruits? I love chestnuts, especially in winter when they are freshly roasted in those magical carts of Pamplona.
The thinking that the author proposes is one committed to people and the common good, even well-humored; it resembles the heart knowledge of Pascal, the emotional knowledge of Scheler or the cognitive force of love of Augustine and Bonaventure. Will we be able to think like this, with the heart? Yes, because we have first been loved by the Lamb.
In praise of thinking
That same Lamb is represented in the lower right corner of the book's cover, crouching next to John the Baptist. The painting is by El Bosco (1489) and Piñero comments on it in the last pages of the book: "John has his eyes closed, but he sees everything clearly and teaches us where to follow, he quietly shows us what we have to choose, that not everything is worth the same, but that there is a path, a firm way, which is before us, even if it appears as simple and humble as that white lamb huddled among the vegetation, but which is pure light, which is the Truth of which he is the messenger...".
In summary, In praise of thinking is a good book to give as a gift. Just over an hour to climb the ladder and fly the plane.
Brief chapters to rebel against the dry life proposed by so many unwary people and to foster the desire to bear fruits of service, confident that the Lamb is the Light that shows us the path and also the destination of our journey.
Thinking with a magnanimous heart is a gift that we owe to Him and that the world is crying out for. That is why I said to change the title to "Five keys to think with a magnanimous heart", and that is why I am so grateful to teachers like Ricardo Piñero who teach us to live and think with quality.
