John Burbidge - Within Reason: A Guide to Non-Deductive Reasoning
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Within Reason : A Guide to Non-deductive Reasoning
author
:
Burbidge, John W.
publisher
:
Broadview Press
isbn10 | asin
:
0921149557
print isbn13
:
9780921149552
ebook isbn13
:
9780585237909
language
:
English
subject
Reasoning, Analogy.
publication date
:
1990
lcc
:
BC177.B87 1990eb
ddc
:
160
subject
:
Reasoning, Analogy.
Page iii
Within Reason
A Guide to Non-Deductive Reasoning
John Burbidge
Page iv
Cataloguing in Publication Data Burbidge, John, 1936- Within Reason ISBN 0-921149-55-7 1. Reasoning. 2. Analogy. 3. Thought and thinking. I. Title BC177.B87 1990 160 C90-093408-5
Printed in Canada on acid free paper.
Copyright 1990, Broadview Press Ltd.
broadview press
P.O. Box 1243
Peterborough, Ontario
K9J 7H5 Canada
(705)743-8990
broadview press
269 Portage Rd.
Lewiston, NY
14092 USA
(705)743-8990
Page v
Acknowledgements
This book started from discussions with Jerry Larock, a student in Philosophy 105 at Trent University, and has benefited from the reactions of other students in the course to a preliminary draft. Bruce Wardhaugh, David Gallop, and Trudy Govier have read parts of the text and made comments. Barbara Burbidge has gone over the whole with an eye to readability. My thanks to all.
Selections on pages 57, 60/61, and 93, from Fragmented Gods, copyright 1987 Reginald W. Bibby, are reprinted with the permission of Stoddart Publishing Company Limited. Other permissions to reproduce copyright material are indicated at the point where the material is used.
Page vii
Contents
Introduction
ix
Chapter 1 Analogy
1
Chapter 2 Argument from Analogy
11
Chapter 3 Replies to Objections
27
Chapter 4 Induction
41
Chapter 5 Statistical Induction
53
Chapter 6 Correlation
81
Chapter 7 Argument to Explanation
97
Chapter 8 Reasoning for Action
121
Chapter 9 Irregular Arguments
145
Page ix
Introduction
Books on reasoning and argument frequently concentrate on deduction. They spell out the forms that make a categorical syllogism valid, or the truth tables that establish a propositional argument. In both, we learn to provide neat rules that make it easy to decide whether an argument is good or not.
If, instead, they focus on induction, there is a similar narrowness of attention. Because generalizations from a sample frequently involve percentages and statistics, the discussion moves into theoretical mathematics, with discussions of probability, calculation of accuracy and controlling for variables.
Seldom, however, do people reason using statistical generalization or deductive forms like modus ponens. Much more commonly they begin with certain beliefs which they hold to be true, then move to others that they think follow. And this psychological process carries with it varying degrees of reliability.
Recently much attention has been paid to this more informal kind of reasoning, and books have been written on the subject. But because there are no clear rules for success, it has been easier to identify the way people go wrong than to talk about ways the arguments could be improved. Different kinds of fallacies are listed, and psychologists are encouraged to investigate why the mistakes might have occurred in the way they did.
When we turn to the texts that have moulded our Western tradition, and look there for the reasons used to
Page x
support their claims, we seldom find neat patterns. Yet these works have acquired their influence because they present a reasoning that is persuasive. If there are fallacies they are not obvious; whenever one scholar claims he has found an error in the logic, other scholars soon emerge to show that the mistake was in the limited perspective of the critic, not in the original text.
A student trained in the traditional discussions of logic, formal and informal, has few resources with which to assess this kind of reasoning. At some stage in their arguments, authors may assume that we know how to use the standard syllogisms, and give us only one premise, leaving us to provide the rest. But the main thrust of their reasoning relies on much less formal and precise forms. And while these writers seldom commit outright fallacies, some of their arguments are stronger and more convincing than others.
This book is concerned with just these less formal and precise forms of reasoning. It suggests criteria of assessment for distinguishing weak arguments from strong. While it discusses induction and correlations, it leaves aside technical material concerning probability, and concentrates on the basic inferences involved.
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