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The thinking goes(?)
Message from lancer posted on 26-10-2009 at 08:10:46 (D | E | F)
Hello,everyone.I have a question:
text:
Today, economic theory suggests that good resource management requires ownership, either private or public.
If not, the thinking goes, then self-interest will lead to overuse and destruction of shared resources.
1.what's the orignal meaning of “the thinking goes”？and in the text above?
what "the thinking" refers to?
2."go" is defined generally as "COMING TO AN END" in Oxford Advanced Dictionary,which is considered as the most suitable explain.Is that right?
3.COME TO AN END--->>cease to exist,disappear,vanish;become damaged or stop functioning properly
4.My translation: IF not,people will change their mind and act by self-interest
Message from lancer posted on 26-10-2009 at 08:10:46 (D | E | F)
Hello,everyone.I have a question:
text:
Today, economic theory suggests that good resource management requires ownership, either private or public.
If not, the thinking goes, then self-interest will lead to overuse and destruction of shared resources.
1.what's the orignal meaning of “the thinking goes”？and in the text above?
what "the thinking" refers to?
2."go" is defined generally as "COMING TO AN END" in Oxford Advanced Dictionary,which is considered as the most suitable explain.Is that right?
3.COME TO AN END--->>cease to exist,disappear,vanish;become damaged or stop functioning properly
4.My translation: IF not,people will change their mind and act by self-interest
Re: The thinking goes(?) from prescott, posted on 26-10-2009 at 15:09:24 (D | E)
Hello,
"the thinking goes, then..."
= logically, then...
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Edit: no french allowed. Ups.
PS. Are you really 4 years old? Congratulations!
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Edited by prescott on 26-10-2009 15:11
Re: The thinking goes(?) from lancer, posted on 27-10-2009 at 07:57:59 (D | E)
thanks，but is it always the meaning of "logically" on any occasion？
Strange to say,why the advanced dictionary did not collect this idiom? I'm puzzed.
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ps.I chose the date casually......
Re: The thinking goes(?) from prescott, posted on 27-10-2009 at 08:42:17 (D | E)
Ni hao ma,
No, you are right, there are other possible meanings, apart from "logically" or "consequently", depending on the position of commas and joint adverbs.
If I say:
"Remove people, the thinking goes, and you remove costs. (In many situations, there is a lot of logic to this thinking.)"
I mean "consequently", emphasising a direct cause -> effect relation between two facts.
But since "thinking" refers to a state of mind/reflexion/reasoning/argumentation, you can find it under various phrasing to introduce a thinking pattern. i.e.
The thinking goes (like this): "[...]" (explanation/developpement, with ou whithout quotes)
The thinking goes, “A = B and B = C, so A = C"
,so the thinking goes. (conclusive)
the thinking goes that...
In this case it means "You/most people (would) think..."
Not easy! in some cases, it may even be better not to translate it at all, or choose "AND"
"Spare the rod AND spoil the child."
Re: The thinking goes(?) from krnntp, posted on 29-10-2009 at 10:34:19 (D | E)
Hi,
It is an odd construction, and seems a little clumsy to me. People don't usually talk about "a thinking" in English, but somehow it has made it into a couple of expressions, "the thinking goes" and "that is his thinking on the matter".
People use "the thinking goes" the same way they would use "the theory goes" or "the story goes", when describing the elements in a train of thought (instead of describing the details of a theory, or the events in a story).
"Goes" means "proceeds onwards", as if to say, "here are the different parts, and they occur in this order". "That's how the story goes" means "that's what happens in the story" (literally: "that's how the events in the story proceed").
"That's how the thinking goes" means "that's how this idea (or thought, or theory) is constructed".
The clause "The thinking goes," is like a label saying that the rest of the sentence is (still) part of a particular train of thought. This almost always indicates that a writer is trying to describe someone else's opinion or theory, not the writer's own. (It would be strange to distance oneself from one's own opinion in this way. And when talking about one's own thoughts, one should use "my thinking goes" instead).
- Today, economic theory suggests that good resource management requires ownership, either private or public.
- If not, the thinking goes, then self-interest will lead to overuse and destruction of shared resources.
In the second sentence, the writer adds more details about the idea.
In total, the writer quotes economic theory as saying: Good resource management requires ownership, either private or public. If not, then self-interest will lead to overuse and destruction of shared resources.
This writer has used "the thinking goes" to let the reader know that the second sentence is not his own opinion, but just a continuation of the economic theory (the "thinking") mentioned in the first sentence. He or she could have written "the theory goes" or "theory goes" or even "the theory says" or "according to theory" instead, but perhaps didn't want to overuse the word "theory". :-)
It's almost as if he or she had written:
If not, (here's some more of that economic theory I mentioned), then self-interest will lead to overuse and destruction of shared resources.
When you take out "the thinking goes", sentence number 2 is a tiny bit ambiguous. While it seems likely the writer is still quoting ideas from economic theory, it's quite possible that he is now expressing his own opinion about the dire consequences of self-interest.
Remove people, the thinking goes, and you remove costs.
Here, "the thinking goes" sounds as if it refers to some opinion which the writer has heard someone else express, somewhere; it might refer to "what some people think", or perhaps to "what most corporate managers think".
it's equivalent to
Here's an idea (which I have heard someone else express): Remove people, and you remove costs.
Remove people, it is thought, and you remove costs.
It doesn't mean "logically, then..." although it might look like it, being so often thrown in the middle of all sorts of logically connected thoughts.
When there's no context (that is to say, when no idea or "thinking" (ugh) is already being discussed), "The thinking goes," at the start of a sentence could be substituted with any of these: (from most to least neutral in tone)
"According to theory," ... fairly neutral, doesn't say the idea is popular
"It is thought that "
"It is commonly thought that "
"The conventional wisdom is that " ... presents the idea as very popular!
In mid-sentence, after a comma, you could substitute "it is thought," "it is commonly thought," "according to conventional wisdom,"
Good luck!
Re: The thinking goes(?) from prescott, posted on 01-11-2009 at 02:10:58 (D | E)
Hello krnntp,
Thanks a lot for developing your "thinking" on this clumsy topic
Brilliant!
Re: The thinking goes(?) from traviskidd, posted on 01-11-2009 at 06:41:06 (D | E)
The thinking goes = Selon la théorie, selon l'argument
Re: The thinking goes(?) from lancer, posted on 01-11-2009 at 09:40:52 (D | E)
Haha,I have saved this page on my computer for revise/review.
Show my highest respect for who worked hard to reply.
Re: The thinking goes(?) from eugen, posted on 16-12-2009 at 15:21:52 (D | E)
In this sentence „the thinking goes“ means, it would led to…?
If not, the thinking will led in our self-interest.
(I hope it isn’t to late for reply)
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