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Nature of Reasoning Notes Psy4
Nature of Reasoning Notes Psy4
You may explore the novel situation mentally, and try to find out a
clue. By following one clue after another you may at last find out the
right way which will lead you to your destination.
It reaches the goal by trying this mean and that means. It solves a
problem by seeing the implications of the data observed or recalled,
and grouping them together into new patterns.
Types of Reasoning:
There are three types of reasoning from the standpoint of Logic:
induction, analogy and deduction. Induction consists in deriving a
general principal from particular acts observed. Analogy consists in
in-erring a new particular fact from the particular facts observed.
Deduction consists in applying a general principle to a particular act.
Thus, reasoning may be either inductive, analogical, or deductive.
For example:
All poets are men;
But here the major term is related to one part of the middle term, and
the minor term is related to another part of it. Sometimes fallacies of
reasoning arise from the ambiguity of the major term, the minor
term, or the middle term, For example;
Feather is light;
In this reasoning the middle term ‘light’ has been used in two senses.
In the same reasoning a term should be used in the same sense.
Hence this reasoning is incorrect.
(iv) The deduction of the results and the verification of the thought
out solution.
But if they do not tally with facts, he has to reject it and make another
hypothesis and proceed in his investigation. At last he will solve the
problem and detect the criminal. But even a provisional hypothesis
may facilitate scientific investigation, because it explains certain facts
and fails to account for other facts.
Motive of Reasoning:
Woodworth States the Following Motives of Reasoning:
Reasoning solves a practical problem. Suppose, you have lost your
way in a forest. You are confronted with a novel situation. You will
have to find out the necessary data or premises and find a key to the
novel situation. You will have to recall the facts of your past
experience, select the relevant facts and reject irrelevant ones, and
combine the data into one pattern after another until you find one
that meets the situation.
The chief minister of a State appoints his own son as his secretary
directly, and justifies his action by saying that he wants a reliable
person to work under him, and that reliability is a better qualification
than academic distinction. Thus he rationalizes his action.
We may start from a general principle and hunt for particular cases
to which it may apply. Here the motive of reasoning consists in seeing
the application of the principle. This may lead to prediction. The
general principle, applied to a particular situation, enables us to
predict a future event. Thus the astronomer predicts solar and lunar
eclipses.
(a) All cloven-footed animals are herbivorous; all camels are cloven-
footed animals: ... all camels are herbivorous.
(b) All living beings are mortal; all animals are living beings; all men
are animals, Socrates is a man: ... Socrates is mortal.
(iii) Psychology deals with both correct thinking and incorrect
thinking and investigates their motives and other psychical deter-
minants. Logic is not concerned with their motives and other mental
antecedents, but with their validity or invalidity and its causes.
The animal perceives the leads and tries to reach the goal by overt
movements. Typical trial and error behaviour involves overt
muscular movements in response to the leads actually perceived.
Reasoning does not involve overt muscular movements; not does it
always involve actual perception of the leads. Reasoning, like a trial
and error process, is oriented towards a goal.
But it is different from the latter in that it does not involve motor
exploration, and also because it gets some of its leads from memory
instead of actual perception. It reaches its goal by thinking of its
clues. Reasoning thinks of the clues given by perception or memory,
and tries to draw a new conclusion by combining and recombining
them in various ways and seeing their implications.