Reasoning
Reason is the capacity for consciously making sense of things, applying logic, for establishing and verifying facts, and changing or justifying practices, institutions, and beliefs based on new or existing information. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, mathematics, and art, and is normally considered to be a definitive characteristic of human nature.
Subcategories
- Arguments
- Assumption
- Automated reasoning
- Deductive reasoning
- Inductive reasoning
- Knowledge representation
- Legal reasoning
- Thought experiments
- Circular reasoning
Circular Reasoning (Begging the question)
Where the reason given for a conclusion assumes the conclusion is true, rather than explaining why it's true
Ex - Witch hunt should be encouraged because there is a need for witch hunts
When you run into trouble is when you assume that an opinion or current state of affairs, because it's so familiar or long-lasting, is a fact, when really it's an assumption.
Can you outsmart the college admissions fallacy? - Elizabeth Cox
Logical Reasoning
Two kinds oflogical reasoningcan be distinguished in addition to formal deduction: induction and abduction. Given a precondition or premise, a conclusion or logical consequence and a rule or material conditional that implies theconclusiongiven theprecondition, one can explain the following.
- Deductive reasoning determines whether the truth of aconclusioncan be determined for thatrule, based solely on the truth of the premises. Example: "When it rains, things outside get wet. The grass is outside, therefore: when it rains, the grass gets wet."Mathematical logic and philosophical logic are commonly associated with this type of reasoning.
- Inductive reasoning attempts to support a determination of therule. It hypothesizes aruleafter numerous examples are taken to be aconclusionthat follows from apreconditionin terms of such arule. Example: "The grass got wet numerous times when it rained, therefore: the grass always gets wet when it rains." While they may be persuasive, these arguments are not deductively valid, see the problem of induction.Science is associated with this type of reasoning.
- Abductive reasoning, a.k.a.inference to the best explanation, selects a cogent set ofpreconditions. Given a trueconclusionand arule, it attempts to select some possiblepremisesthat, if true also, can support theconclusion, though not uniquely. Example: "When it rains, the grass gets wet. The grass is wet. Therefore, it might have rained." This kind of reasoning can be used to develop a hypothesis, which in turn can be tested by additional reasoning or data.Diagnosticians, detectives, and scientists often use this type of reasoning.