reasoning

Knowledge

2022

We explain what reasoning is, its elements and characteristics. Also, what are the various types of reasoning.

Reasoning is a human ability but it also depends on learning.

What is reasoning?

When we speak of reasoning, we usually refer to the capacity of the human being to mentally face a trouble or a situation, applying the logic and the experience to your resolution and / or understanding. In other cases, we refer to the different forms that said thought, from the specific aspects of the human mind involved in it.

In other words, reasoning is a characteristic feature of the human species, that is, capable of differentiating ourselves from animals. It is an intellectual, logical process that through arguments achieves conclusions, given a first set of premises.

The way we understand reasoning today is linked to the modern idea of ​​reason. It is a product of changes profound philosophical philosophies that took place during the Renaissance European and especially in the Scientific revolution.

Thus faith in God as the fundamental trait of the human being was displaced, supplanting it, precisely, by reasoning and his ability to understand the fundamental laws that govern the world around him.

Reasoning characteristics

In general terms, any type of reasoning is expected to allow solving problems, drawing conclusions and producing some form of conscious learning of the facts, through causal and logical relationships.

This means that the reasoning is voluntary, it depends on the capacities of each person and is something that, given the learning adequate, can be exercised and developed. As we will see later, the reasoning applies to various mental spheres and through procedural logics (methodologies) different, as the case may be.

Elements of reasoning

All types of reasoning consist of two clearly differentiated elements, which are:

  • The premises. The set of expressions that affirm or deny some aspect of the reality and that constitute the starting point for any form of reasoning. The premises, like the conclusions, can be true or false, general or particular.
  • The conclusions. They are the set of expressions obtained from the premises, through the application of logical procedures and arguments. The conclusions of one reasoning can serve as a premise for another, and so on.

Inductive and deductive reasoning

If many times the cloudy sky unleashed a rain, we can induce that it will always happen.

Two of the main forms of classification of reasoning are inductive and deductive. They are distinguished from each other by the logical procedure, that is, the type of formal and argumentative operation that they imply, in order to obtain their conclusions. Let's see it separately:

  • Deductive reasoning. As its name implies, it involves the use of deduction as a way of drawing conclusions. This is that, given specific premises of a general or universal type, it is possible to reach conclusions of a particular and individual type, based on what we consider to be true at a global level. For example: if we start from the premise that dogs bite, and that our pet is, indeed, a dog, we can reach the deductive logical conclusion that our pet is capable of biting us. This procedure is not always true, of course, since it depends entirely on the validity of its premises.
  • Inductive reasoning. This reasoning goes in the opposite direction to the previous case, starting therefore from particular and individual premises, to then reach global or universal conclusions. This makes it a less logical reasoning mode, but more probabilistic and therefore more useful for predicting the future to some extent. For example, if a person lies to us once, we will assume that in the future they will lie to us again, even if there is a probability that this will not happen.

Logical and mathematical reasoning

The reasoning logical it is the ability to draw conscious, demonstrable conclusions from a set of premises. This is carried out by applying our knowledge, without resorting to our individual experience.

It can return valid (correct) or false (incorrect) results. This is because even bad reasoning is also possible reasoning, although from the point of view of logic, false reasoning is called fallacies.

A specific type of logical reasoning is mathematical, generally of a formal type, in which the rules and procedures of a set of relationships between numbers are followed, sets, representations or figures, to establish mathematical axioms, theorems or procedures.

Mathematical reasoning never turns to experience or subjectivity, but to the purest and most logical objectivity. Thus, an operation like 2 + 2 will always have the same result regardless of who carries it out, where or what their previous experience is. For this, the numbers and mathematical signs.

Verbal reasoning

Just as the previous variants of reasoning employ the language formal mathematics, verbal reasoning employs the mechanisms and procedures of language, whether spoken or written, and therefore can also be called linguistic reasoning.

However, this type of reasoning depends on the grasp of the language that each individual has, since the language is a technology that we must learn and that we inherit from our social and cultural environment, but at the same time it is anchored in a natural capacity of the human being: the capacity to learn and develop languages, that is, to produce signs.

Verbal reasoning, then, has to do with mastering verbal language, that is, it is associated with the ability to read-comprehend, linguistic competence, creativity expressive, among other aspects of verbal exercise.

Abstract reasoning

This is probably one of the most important forms of human reasoning, which in some way encompasses verbal and mathematical reasoning, since both have a significant level of abstraction.

Abstract reasoning is the handling of non-concrete concepts and objects, which do not exist in the same way as tangible things. It allows us to produce information new from the relationship between abstract notions, less linked to the earthly, such as quantity, proportion, validity, symmetry, beauty, etc.

Great grips of this type of reasoning allow us to handle complex notions, perform complicated mental operations and establish relationships between objects and non-existent situations, such as assumptions, hypothesis and other forms of elucubration.

!-- GDPR -->