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.