Atkinson - The art of logical thinking: or the laws of reasoning

"Reasoning" is defined as: "The act, process or art of exercising thefaculty 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 frombeing precise in its meaning. In common and popular discourse it denotesthat power by which we distinguish truth from falsehood, and right fromwrong, and by which we are enabled to combine means for the attainmentof particular ends."

By the employment of the reasoning faculties of the mind we compareobjects presented to the mind as percepts or concepts, taking up the"raw materials" of thought and weaving them into more complex andelaborate mental fabrics which we call abstract and general ideas oftruth. Brooks says: "It is the thinking power of the mind; the facultywhich gives us what has been called thought-knowledge, in distinctionfrom sense-knowledge. It may be regarded as the mental architect amongthe faculties; it transforms the material furnished by the senses ...into new products, and thus builds up the temples of science andphilosophy." The last-mentioned authority adds: "Its products aretwofold, ideas and thoughts. An idea is a mental product whichwhen expressed in words does not give a proposition; a thought is amental product which embraces the relation of two or more ideas. Theideas of the understanding are of two general classes; abstract ideasand general ideas. The thoughts are also of two general classes; thosepertaining to contingent truth and those pertaining to necessary truth.In contingent truth, we have facts, or immediate judgments, andgeneral truths including laws and causes, derived from particularfacts; in necessary truth we have axioms, or self-evident truths, andthe truths derived from them by reasoning, called theorems."

In inviting you to consider the processes of reasoning, we areirresistibly reminded of the old story of one of Moliere's plays inwhich one of the characters expresses surprise on learning that he "hadbeen talking prose for forty years without knowing it." As Jevons saysin mentioning this: "Ninety-nine people out of a hundred might beequally surprised on hearing that they had been converting propositions,syllogizing, falling into paralogisms, framing hypotheses and makingclassifications with genera and species. If asked whether they werelogicians, they would probably answer, No! They would be partly right;for I believe that a large number even of educated persons have no clearidea of what logic is. Yet, in a certain way, every one must have been alogician since he began to speak."

So, in asking you to consider the processes of reasoning we are notassuming that you never have reasonedon the contrary we are fullyaware that you in connection with every other person, have reasoned allyour mature life. That is not the question. While everyone reasons, thefact is equally true that the majority of persons reason incorrectly.Many persons reason along lines far from correct and scientific, andsuffer therefor and thereby. Some writers have claimed that the majorityof persons are incapable of even fairly correct reasoning, pointing tothe absurd ideas entertained by the masses of people as a proof of thestatement. These writers are probably a little radical in their viewsand statements, but one is often struck with wonder at the evidences ofincapacity for interpreting facts and impressions on the part of thegeneral public. The masses of people accept the most absurd ideas astruth, providing they are gravely asserted by some one claimingauthority. The most illogical ideas are accepted without dispute orexamination, providing they are stated solemnly and authoritatively.Particularly in the respective fields of religion and politics do wefind this blind acceptance of illogical ideas by the multitude. Mereassertion by the leaders seems sufficient for the multitude of followersto acquiesce.

In order to reason correctly it is not merely necessary to have a goodintellect. An athlete may have the proper proportions, good framework,and symmetrical muscles, but he cannot expect to cope with others of hiskind unless he has learned to develop those muscles and to use them tothe best advantage. And, in the same way, the man who wishes to reasoncorrectly must develop his intellectual faculties and must also learnthe art of using them to the best advantage. Otherwise he will waste hismental energy and will be placed at a disadvantage when confronted witha trained logician in argument or debate. One who has witnessed a debateor argument between two men equally strong intellectually, one of whomis a trained logician and the other lacking this advantage, will neverforget the impression produced upon him by the unequal struggle. Theconflict is like that of a powerful wrestler, untrained in the littletricks and turns of the science, in the various principles of applyingforce in a certain way at a certain time, at a certain place, with atrained and experienced wrestler. Or of a conflict between a musculargiant untrained in the art of boxing, when confronted with a trained andexperienced exponent of "the manly art." The result of any such conflictis assured in advance. Therefore, everyone should refuse to rest contentwithout a knowledge of the art of reasoning correctly, for otherwise heplaces himself under a heavy handicap in the race for success, andallows others, perhaps less well-equipped mentally, to have a decidedadvantage over him.

Jevons says in this connection: "To be a good logician is, however, farmore valuable than to be a good athlete; because logic teaches us toreason well, and reasoning gives us knowledge, and knowledge, as LordBacon said, is power. As athletes, men cannot for a moment compare withhorses or tigers or monkeys. Yet, with the power of knowledge, men tamehorses and shoot tigers and despise monkeys. The weakest framework withthe most logical mind will conquer in the end, because it is easy toforesee the future, to calculate the result of actions, to avoidmistakes which might be fatal, and to discover the means of doing thingswhich seemed impossible. If such little creatures as ants had betterbrains 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 somekind of knowledge, and the brute animals can do the same. But what givespower is the deeper knowledge called Science. People may see, and hear,and feel all their lives without really learning the nature of thingsthey see. But reason is the mind's eye, and enables us to see why thingsare, and when and how events may be made to happen or not to happen. Thelogician endeavors to learn exactly what this reason is which makes thepower of men. We all, as I have said, must reason well or ill, but logicis the science of reasoning and enables us to distinguish between thegood reasoning which leads to truth, and the bad reasoning which everyday betrays people into error and misfortune."