Reason

=**__Reason__**=

Day 1. Intro to reason: "The Argument Clinic". What role can reason play, in relation to sense perception? In relation to conflicts among knowledge claims? Why should we care about whether reason can fulfill its promise? - Reasoning, logic, and critical thinking all form a knowledge force and reason fills the holes that the WOKs leave open-ended. - Sense perception plays a large role in reason because in order for us to reason something out, we must sense it first. i.e. seeing something happen. - Reason relates to conflict among knowledge claims because in order for someone to come up with a knowledge claim they must have reason for it and it must make sense in their mind.

Day 2. The many-sided nature of reason. Formal (logical and mathematical) and informal (everyday structuring of ideas) uses of reason. - Everyday people use and misuse reason, and it may not be obvious to them, but it is true for everyone. - Formal reason is reason that we use in subjects, for example, math. We know that 1+1=2 because of our mathematical reasoning. It simply makes sense to us. - Informal reason is the kind of reason we use in everyday life such as when talking to friends and forming ideas about what to say in certain situations. For example, we know that is is unreasonable to say to a friend something about their test score when we know they did not do as well as they hoped.

Day 3. Deductive and inductive reasoning; intro to symbolic logic. What is an argument? - Deductive reasoning is a rule-governed method that allows you to draw a conclusion about a set of different statements. - Inductive reasoning is what allows you to make conclusions about something from a certain case. - An argument is a set of statements based on information that can lead to a certain conclusion.

Day 4. Symbolic logic, continued. Validity and truth of arguments; relation between them. How logic is applied in everyday life and science. - Symbolic logic is what allows us to write arguments on paper with symbols and a certain structure. - Truth tables are what we use to demonstrate logic. - Symbolic logic is something that is universal and can help determine whether or not a statement is valid. - Logic is something that is used not only in math and science but in every subject and it is something that we use every day of our lives.

Day 5. Intro to fallacies: "Love is a fallacy". Practical uses of logic: domination and liberation. Common fallacies. - A fallacy is a misconception that comes from invalid reasoning. This occurs often and in various situations we face daily. "Love is a fallacy" means that sometimes people can misinterpret things in situations pertaining to love and this is can lead to misconceptions within the relationship. This thing they misinterpret comes from their own invalid reasoning and bad judgement. - Some common fallacies include red herring, argumentum in terrorem, post hoc ergo propter hoc, and argumentum ad vericundiam. - Red Herring refers to the fallacy that comes from when an argument is given in response to a certain argument, but it doesn't always relate to that specific topic. This can lead to the person forgetting what the initial topic is actually about.

Day 6. Kinds of fallacies. Formal fallacies (a problem with the logical structure) and informal fallacies (a problem with the kind of support offered in the argument). - Informal fallacies are not about the logical structure of an argument but are more about the actual information within an argument. - Formal fallacies are ones that are more based on the actual logical structure of an argument. - Informal fallacies are also the ones that many people do not notice and can have bad results.

Day 7. Informal logic/fallacies: cognitive biases: groupthink, bandwagon effect, confirmation bias, etc. - Groupthink is a type of thought within a group whose members talk through certain ideas and issues in a reasonable matter. - The bandwagon effect refers to the idea that people only do or believe certain things simply because the people around them do or believe those things. - Confirmation bias refers to the idea that people often would rather hear the information they believe is true or want to hear, regardless of wether or not it is actually valid.