Effective Reasoning

Everyone reasons. Humans are reasoning animals, if not always reasonable. Further, we homo sapiens are unique in that we reason with words and symbols that make thoughts and ideas that lead to anticipation, imagination, and the very making of human history.

To reason is to use evidence and thought to come to some conclusion. Reasoning can be done alone or in groups, but most effectively, working in groups but reflecting in private.

Unfortunately, merely being human does not provide any assurance that any of us that we will reason effectively. Reasoning does not have to produce particularly useful results, however productive reasoning is an art that requires some technical skill. Just as graphic artists have to learn about draftsmanship paint and brushwork to make paintings, so too do thinkers need some understanding of logic, language and reliable projection if they are to become leaders and help make history.

We hope to present here information that will allow almost anyone to develop both the skill and the knowledge to reason effectively, to imagine new worlds and to get things done: Somewhere between paralysis via analysis and activity instead of progress

Particularly, this Wikibook discusses informal reasoning, which includes some formal methods and some traditional approaches together with more recent philosophical and neurological understanding of effective reasoning techniques. For a complete study, take a look also at the related reference works mentioned as well as associated Wikibooks such as Introduction to Moral Reasoning and Formal Logic.

Outline

1. Effective Reasoning
   • Informal and Formal Reasoning
   • A History of Reasoning
   • Why Informal Reasoning?
   • Kinds of Informal 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

2. Elements of Reasoning
   • Assumptions and Conclusions
   • Deduction and Induction
   • Truth and Falsity
   • Validation, Fallacy, Reliability
3. Language
   • Verbal and Nonverbal Reasoning
   • Semantics and Syntax
   • Functions of Language and Forms of Discourse
   • Content
   • Agreement and Disagreement
   • Information, Concept, Reality, Virtual Reality
   • Fact and Opinion
   • Subjective and Objective
4. Memory
   • How Memory Works
   • How Memory Works with Reason
   • How to Use Memory
5. Sources of Appeal
   • Empiricism
   • Force
   • Origin and Agreement
   • Circumstance
   • Relationship and Relevancy
   • Nihilistic Arguments and Other "Dead-End" Arguments
6. Definition and Focus
   • Definition and Problem Solving
   • Definition and Discourse
   • Kinds of Definition
   • Meaning
   • Defining
   • Ambiguity
7. Deduction
   • Proof, Support, Evidence, and Warrant
   • Forms of Deduction
8. Inductive Reasoning
   • Reasoning from Parts to Whole and from Whole to Parts
   • Analogical Reasoning
   • Correlation and Causal Connection
   • Mill's Methods
   • Commonplaces and Arguments from Form
   • Hybrid Forms of Inference
   • Science
   • The Scientific Method
   • Experimentation and Ad Hoc Hypothesis
   • Sociological/Anthropological Methods
   • Probability
   • Probabilistic Method
   • Expected Value
   • Intuition and Reasoning
9. Doubt
   • A History of Doubt
   • Systematic Doubt, Certainty and Uncertainty, and Chaos
   • Existentialism, Relativism,and Postmodernism
10. Argumentation
11. Literary Criticism
12. Aesthetic Criticism
13. Moral Reasoning
14. Apologetics and Religious Criticism

Recommended Resources

• Internal
  • Reasoning
  • Logic
  • Argumentation Theory
  • Informal Logic
  • Logical Fallacy
• External
  • Books
    • Boole, George (1958). An Investigation of The Laws of Thought On Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probability. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0486600289 (This text is also available in free eText form here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15114)
    • Brock, Bernard & Scott, Robert (1980) Methods of Rhetorical Criticism: A Twentieth-Century Perspective (2nd ed.). Detroit: Wayne State University Press ISBN 0060458429
    • Carnap, Rudolf (1958). Introduction to Symbolic Logic and Its Applications. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0486604535
    • Copi, Irving (2005) Introduction to Logic (12th ed.). Printice Hall ISBN 0131332759
    • Polya, G. (1971) How To Solve It (Reissue ed.). Princeton University Press ISBN 0691080976
    • Dauer, Francis Watanabe (1996) Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Reasoning. New York: Barnes and Noble ISBN 0760701377
  • Websites
    • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    • Everything About Debating
    • The Rhetorica Network
    • Copi Bidge Page (This is a website companion to Copi's Introduction to Logic mentioned above in the book section.)
    • Interactive Mathematics
  • Other media
    • Zarefsky, David (2005). Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning [Course]. Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company Limited Partnership
    • Hall, James (2005). Tools of Thinking: Understanding th World Trough Experience and Reason [Course]. Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company Limited Partnership