THE ART OF LOGICAL THINKING/PART 1
CHAPTER I.
REASONING
"Reasoning"
is defined as: "The act, process or art of exercising the faculty of
reason; the act or faculty of employing reason in argument; argumentation,
ratiocination; reasoning power; disputation, discussion, argumentation."
Stewart says: "The word reason itself is far from being
precise in its meaning. In common and popular discourse it denotes that power
by which we distinguish truth from falsehood, and right from wrong, and by
which we are enabled to combine means for the attainment of particular
ends."
By
the employment of the reasoning faculties of the mind we compare objects
presented to the mind as percepts or concepts, taking up the "raw
materials" of thought and weaving them into more complex and elaborate
mental fabrics which we call abstract and general ideas of truth. Brooks says:
"It is the thinking power of the mind; the faculty which gives us what has
been called thought-knowledge, in distinction from sense-knowledge.
It may be regarded as the mental architect among the faculties; it transforms
the material furnished by the senses ... into new products, and thus builds up
the temples of science and philosophy." The last-mentioned authority adds:
"Its products are twofold, ideas and thoughts.
An idea is a mental product which when expressed in words does
not give a proposition; a thought is a mental product which
embraces the relation of two or more ideas. The ideas of the understanding are
of two general classes; abstract ideas and general ideas. The thoughts are also
of two general classes; those pertaining to contingent truth and those
pertaining to necessary truth. In contingent truth, we have facts,
or immediate judgments, and general truths including laws and causes,
derived from particular facts; in necessary truth we have axioms,
or self-evident truths, and the truths derived from them by reasoning,
called theorems."
In
inviting you to consider the processes of reasoning, we are irresistibly
reminded of the old story of one of Moliere's plays in which one of the
characters expresses surprise on learning that he "had been talking
prose for forty years without knowing it." As Jevons says in mentioning
this: "Ninety-nine people out of a hundred might be equally surprised on
hearing that they had been converting propositions, syllogizing, falling into
paralogisms, framing hypotheses and making classifications with genera and
species. If asked whether they were logicians, they would probably answer, No!
They would be partly right; for I believe that a large number even of educated
persons have no clear idea of what logic is. Yet, in a certain way, every one
must have been a logician since he began to speak."
So,
in asking you to consider the processes of reasoning we are not assuming that
you never have reasoned—on the contrary we are fully aware that you in
connection with every other person, have reasoned all your mature life. That is
not the question. While everyone reasons, the fact is equally true that the
majority of persons reason incorrectly. Many persons reason along lines far
from correct and scientific, and suffer therefor and thereby. Some writers have
claimed that the majority of persons are incapable of even fairly
correct reasoning, pointing to the absurd ideas entertained by the masses
of people as a proof of the statement. These writers are probably a little
radical in their views and statements, but one is often struck with wonder at
the evidences of incapacity for interpreting facts and impressions on the part
of the general public. The masses of people accept the most absurd ideas as
truth, providing they are gravely asserted by some one claiming authority. The
most illogical ideas are accepted without dispute or examination, providing
they are stated solemnly and authoritatively. Particularly in the respective
fields of religion and politics do we find this blind acceptance of illogical
ideas by the multitude. Mere assertion by the leaders seems sufficient for the
multitude of followers to acquiesce.
In
order to reason correctly it is not merely necessary to have a good intellect.
An athlete may have the proper proportions, good framework, and symmetrical muscles,
but he cannot expect to cope with others of his kind unless he has learned to
develop those muscles and to use them to the best advantage. And, in the same
way, the man who wishes to reason correctly must develop his intellectual
faculties and must also learn the art of using them to the best advantage.
Otherwise he will waste his mental energy and will be placed at a disadvantage
when confronted with a trained logician in argument or debate. One who has
witnessed a debate or argument between two men equally strong intellectually,
one of whom is a trained logician and the other lacking this advantage, will
never forget the impression produced upon him by the unequal struggle. The
conflict is like that of a powerful wrestler, untrained in the little tricks
and turns of the science, in the various principles of applying force in a
certain way at a certain time, at a certain place, with a trained and
experienced wrestler. Or of a conflict between a muscular giant untrained in
the art of boxing, when confronted with a trained and experienced exponent of
"the manly art." The result of any such conflict is assured in
advance. Therefore, everyone should refuse to rest content without a knowledge
of the art of reasoning correctly, for otherwise he places himself under a
heavy handicap in the race for success, and allows others, perhaps
less well-equipped mentally, to have a decided advantage over him.
Jevons
says in this connection: "To be a good logician is, however, far more
valuable than to be a good athlete; because logic teaches us to reason well,
and reasoning gives us knowledge, and knowledge, as Lord Bacon said, is power.
As athletes, men cannot for a moment compare with horses or tigers or monkeys.
Yet, with the power of knowledge, men tame horses and shoot tigers and despise
monkeys. The weakest framework with the most logical mind will conquer in the
end, because it is easy to foresee the future, to calculate the result of
actions, to avoid mistakes which might be fatal, and to discover the means of doing
things which seemed impossible. If such little creatures as ants had better
brains than men, they would either destroy men or make them into slaves. It is
true that we cannot use our eyes and ears without getting some kind of
knowledge, and the brute animals can do the same. But what gives power is the
deeper knowledge called Science. People may see, and hear, and feel all their
lives without really learning the nature of things they see. But reason is the
mind's eye, and enables us to see why things are, and when and how events may
be made to happen or not to happen. The logician endeavors to learn exactly
what this reason is which makes the power of men. We all, as I have said, must
reason well or ill, but logic is the science of reasoning and enables us to
distinguish between the good reasoning which leads to truth, and the bad
reasoning which every day betrays people into error and misfortune."
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