Is behaviour caused by thinking?

Do they think?

Why do we all believe that our behaviour is caused by our thinking? 

When we see someone going towards a fridge we can say: "can you grab me a drink?" And that person then replies: "but I came to wash the dishes, you can get the drink yourself". You say: "oh I thought that you were going to grab a drink for yourself that’s why I asked".

To think or not to think

Now was it really our “thinking” that made us ask that person for a drink? Did you really have the time to think that thought? Because we think and rationalise the majority of our lives, we start to believe that thinking causes our behaviour. But then consider the following example. 

I went to the mirror in the corridor and the dogs came running to me and jumping to me just like they did last time I was getting ready to take them for a walk. This time I just came to the mirror to comb my hair, not to get ready for the walk. Does that mean that they “thought” that I’m getting ready for a walk? Was their behaviour of jumping and wagging their tails caused by their thinking? If we assume that it wasn’t, could we also assume that human behaviour doesn’t have to be caused by thinking either? 

If we believe that dogs behaviour was not caused by thinking then there need to be a different explanation. It might have been simple conditioning: caregiver goes to the mirror = walk. To acquire that conditioning dogs would have to be exposed to those contingencies previously. It doesn't have to be a long process. Sometimes just one instance is enough to form this connection. But then maybe our behaviour is conditioned in the same way? Seeing someone going towards a fridge = getting a drink out of it. Only later we rationalised what we did. So the thinking goes after the behaviour, not before it. Especially when there usually isn’t that much time to get this thinking in. If you're thinking at the speed of you're speaking then how could you fit that in between seeing a person walking to the fridge and you saying what you said? 

If animals can do this and put two facts together maybe it’s not proof that they think but rather that our behaviour is not caused by thinking even though we believe it is? 

I personally love considering many different options and explanations. I love questioning things. Just because I believed in something for my whole life, it doesn't mean I cannot change my beliefs. And just because I changed my beliefs about something, it doesn't mean that anyone else has to change theirs. 

Believe in what you want to believe and think what you want to think. I'm always open to discussion. I would like to inspire people to start asking questions and not follow the status quo without a single thought. “Questions are the answers” as Jim Kwik often says. There is usually a lot more to discover when you start asking them.

Cuteness sleeping. Just because