Effective Reasoning/Print version

Everyone reasons. Humans are reasoning animals. Further, humans reason with words and symbols.

To reason is to use thought to come to some conclusion. Reasoning can be done alone or in groups.

Unfortunately, being human does not assure any of us that we will reason effectively. In other words, reasoning does not have to produce particularly useful results. Productive reasoning is both an art and a science.

I hope to present here information that will allow most to develop both the skill and the knowledge to reason effectively.

Particularly, I will be discussing informal reasoning. For a complete exposition of effective reasoning, see, also, the Wikibooks Introduction to Moral Reasoning, Formal Logic, and Systems of Logic.

=Potential Outline=

Effective Reasoning

 * Critique/Analysis
 * Argumentation
 * Problem Solving/Decision Making
 * Analogical Reasoning
 * Causality and Correlation
 * Scientific Reasoning
 * Probabilistic Reasoning
 * Aesthetic Reasoning
 * Moral Reasoning

Need for Reasoning

 * Organizing Information (Deduction)
 * Solution of Problems
 * Resolution of Controversies
 * Discovery of Truth

Informal and Formal Reasoning
Formal reasoning is concerned only with the forms of arguments. Certain forms of arguments have been identified which are valid. In other words, if the original statements (or premises) in those arguments are true, then the conclusions must necessarily be true also. Therefore, the form:

All marbles are red. All red things are bright. Therefore, all marbles are bright.

is a valid form.

The truth of the first two statements is not of interest. But, assuming that they are true, the last statement must necessarily be true.

Formal reasoning is deductive in nature. In other words, as said above, the conclusion of a valid formal argument follows necessarily from the premises. Notice that deductive reasoning produces no new information. It simply rearranges what is already known into a new statement of the same information.

Notice also that deductive or formal reasoning does not require any reference to external reality. It can be completely divorced from external reality. Therefore:

All unicorns are white. All white things are virtuous. Therefore, all unicorns are virtuous.

is a perfectly good and valid deductive argument.

Formal reasoning is addressed in other Wikibooks - "Formal Logic", and "Systems of Logic".

Informal reasoning includes formal reasoning but it also is concerned with all the other elements of reasoning. It addresses the probability of truth of premises and conclusions. Informal reasoning is common, every-day reasoning.

= License =