Resoning

This post was written by Professor Jensen and revised and posted by Dena Jensen
  

It is good to be called rational, but don't be satisfied with the compliment. 
The following story will help yeild some light and clarification about the power and limits of reasoning. 

Bright Student: I just detest the debates I have with you. Through your cleverness your logic make up, seem down, black turns to white, and good becomes bad. 

Professor: Well, don't take is seriously. It is a game and a good game with rules. I just know how to play it better than you. 

Bright Student: But, It isnt a game for me. I want to use my mind to find truth. I want to think clearly. I want to use logic to find truth and prove it to others. 

Professor: Well, you might think you are proving something to another if you find them a little less intelligent. Of course, don't plan on really disovering truth with your logic. 

Bright Student: Why? 

Professor: Well, because for thousands of years the best minds have tried and failed You are not doing yourself a favor if you use reason alone. Don't rely on reason by itsself to find the final answers to the big questions. 

Bright Student: So? 

Professor: Be happy. Be happy you have a good mind, that  you can use your thinking skills so well, that you can use your gifts to enhance and improve you personal life. But, remember to be humble. Humility is the gift that is limited in what it can give you and more limited in convincing others. 

To understand what this professor is trying to convey, it is important to think logically. It is useful to consider two types of reasoning. The first is scientific, which has for it's basis sensory data. The other kind of reasoning has for its foundation fundamental propositions or premises that are believed to be infallible. Some call them different things, we can call them assumptions. In this case, we begin with these acceptable premises, or propositions, then proceed with mental calculations which supposedly guide us to knowledge and truth. It must be obvious to you that the conclusions reached through the most careful and astute reasoning can be no better than the propositions upon which they rest.
   In the case of scientific reasoning, the conclusions will be wrong if the sensory data is incorrect to start with. As with the other kind of reasoning, the conclusions will be false if the fundamental permse or preposition was in error. For example, if you begin your reasoning with a fundamental belief that people are basically good or people are basically bad, the conclusions reached will be different. Reasoning is a tool used to supplement and expand what may or may not be true beginnings. Furthermoreit can be easily shown that the mental calculations used in reasoning can lead to inaccurate conclusions through falty reasoning. Problems in reasoning are easily demonstrated in introductory courses in logic. 
 Now, with this realization that there are problems inherent in both sensory and rational approaches to knowledge, you will still, like most people, use and trust each. So, when you believe that you are a practical person you simply mean that you are capable of employing your senses and reasoning to come to better conclusions. So, what if you use both reasoning and sensory observations together, at the same time? This is scientific reasoning. 

For an interesting discussion on Scientific Reasoning click here.

  

Can Science Know All?

The modern world is built upon science that cannot know all. 
 The difficulty is that science has proven itself to be the most powerful method of finding truth ever conceived, and this may lead to some to turn their backs on all the other methods.This can put you in a disadvantage when it comes to understand people. 

Think for a bit of a (possible) conversation between a Psychologist Professor and a Parent. 

Professor: You would like to know which Parenting Theory is best?

Parent: Yes, but not just which one is best, but true. Which theory has the most scientific proof? 

Professor: Actually, you are asking at least three questions: 
What is best? 
What is true?
What is scientific? 
I think you will have an answer to all three when you consider that no credible, informed and honest scientist will claim that his methods can adequately study what cannot be observed or measured. 
  Thus, when you expressed a belief that each person has a spirit and that spirit has something to do with directing, then science will not be able to adequately nor fully explain what you need to know. 

Parent: So are you saying that I can not turn to science for my answers to my parenting questions? 

Professor: Not quite. Sure, you can turn to science for such answers; many will be very good. But don't expect to find a scientific theory that is adequate to explain, predict, or completely inform you with all you want to or need to know about parenting. 

Parent: So, where do I turn?

Professor: Turn to science for important information about regularities in behavior, growth patterns, correlations between behaviors and environment. Science provides many good insights about such matters. But now knowing this, also realize that in psychology alone there are hundreds of theories. It would be foolish to select one theory on the basis that it is scientifically true. A genuine scientist will not pretend that he can adequately study the most important aspect of a person, which is that of the will, soul or spirit or . whatever you call it 

Again, the greatest and most dramatic illustration of truth finding through the sensory, is the use of sensory of information and reasoning through science. 
Everyone must be impressed with the undeniable achievements of science in the physical world. Scientific disciplines are staffed with men who have proven themselves exceptional in using the scientific method to uncover truth and knowledge. 
 Therefore, without dispute, science is the foundation for truth and knowledge in our technically based society. However, you should be aware honest scientists will tell you directly that they cannot, and in fact do not, want to use this method to tell you about things that are not based on empirical observation. If you believe that people are more a material body, then you must turn to other methods for a complete and understanding of your marriage.