The problem with problem solving: My problem
My problem with problem solving
can be broken
into two categories of complaint.
One can be stated as: The limitations of problem solving
as a technique for developing minds that can create.
And the other can be stated as the problems that arise
systematically (culturally, politically)
because our thinkers are trained to believe that problem solving
is the sine qua non of reasoning.
The limitations of problem solving: My argument
First of all, some problems can't be solved.
They must be endured
and iteratively corrected for best case
until knowledge and experience and
consensus has accumulated to such a degree
that an answer, or a series of procedures is forthcoming.
To teach students to deal with the above case, which is the rule rather
than the exception,
the quality of thought necessary is not problem solving
but problem resolving or the continuous, minute structuring and
reconstructing of circumstances.
The cognitive skill can be characterized as - the collecting
and recollecting of instances until clarity emerges.
is its linear logical structure. Within our present educational frameworks,
it is assumed that we will go from problem to solution. This expectation
leaves most of us lost and angry
when the solution as often as not reveals itself to be yet another problem.
Referencing eastern methods of inuring ourselves through passive acceptance
of the recurrence of patterns is an excellent affective technique but does not
meet the rigorous western standards required to define an active thinking paradigm.
Acceptance of the circularity (or the dialectic) of events is an analytical
not a creative thinking technique.
Thinking is both action and creation. Problem solving narrows the actions
and creations necessary for thinking to a focus
insufficient to encompass fractal, holographic, ecological or system thinking
requirements.