Support to Ethics of Interdependence and Holism by Edward de Bono’s Methods of Thinking

The current detrimental practice of one-sided, arguing (‘with argument’) and short-term thinking must be replaced for humankind to develop beyond neoliberalism and survive. De Bono’s Lateral Thinking focuses on creativity and idea generation, Parallel Thinking on good, tolerant and requisitely holistic cooperation in it. In reviewing de Bono’s literature, the main frameworks that have been identified are: Lateral Thinking; D.A.T.T; CoRT1, The Six Thinking Hats, Simplicity and The Six Value Medals. The researchers’ focus converges towards CoRT1. This was consciously done since it is the most used in the teaching of thinking skills in schools and is comprehensive of most thinking dispositions. The above frameworks are best known in education; they are also applied in other areas such as business; education for modern thinking is necessary there too. The essence of the CoRT Thinking Method is to focus attention directly on different aspects of thinking and to crystalline these aspects into definite concepts and tools that can be used deliberately. The essence of ‘6 Thinking Hats’ as a tool of parallel thinking is holism by interdependence: all team members think from the same viewpoint in the same phase, and all of them switch to another ‘hat’ together in the next phase. Social responsibility results from such experience.

Keywords: Argument, business, CoRT, creativity, cooperation, de Bono, education, ethics of interdependence, interdependence, lateral thinking, method, parallel thinking, requisite holism, ’Six Thinking Hats’, social responsibility, teaching, thinking, thinking skill, thinking tool, tolerance.