ابن خلدون، متفکر و فيلسوف اسلامی، بشر را جاهل، و بوسيله انديشه عالم می‌داند و افتراق بين انسان و حيوان را در انديشيدن می‌داند. سه مرتبه برای انديشه قائل است: انديشه تميزی، انديشه تجربی، انديشه نظری، و رفتار معقول و منسجم انسان را ناشی از انديشه می‌داند (آغاز کار پايان انديشه است) رفتار و انديشه آموختنی و ناشی از قوه لايزال الهی است. ديدگاههای ابن خلدون در انديشه و رفتار، ناشی از آيات کريمه قرآن است.

Ibn Khaldoon, the sidtinguished Islamic scholar and philosopher, considers human beings as basically ignorant, However, he notes that, the can overcome this ignorance b y means of thought and contemplation. According to him one of the distinguishiong characteristics between human beings and animals is the capacity to think. In this respect he considres 3 leves of thought, namely, discriminative, empirical and theoretical. He believes that reasonable and adaptive behavior arises from thought and contemplation as captured in the saying that "activity begins when thought ends". He claims that thought and behaviour can be learnt and acquired and states that this capacity is a profound manifestation that Ibn-Khaldoon's views in respect to thought and behaviour are inspired by the great Koranic verses.