![]() Think about the history of world religions for example. There are a variety of ways to consider the history of reason. Applying Reason is one way that humans can begin to make sense of a piece of information, or a concept, or a decision they need to make. Reason is a process and the process of Reason can reduce the possibility of an endless question loop. If I consciously make sense of things, is my sense correct? Is my sense the same sense for others? Where do beliefs, values, and opinions fit in to all of this conversation about reason and facts? The practices of logic and argument play some part in transforming information into fact, but how does logic work? If someone can simply persuade me about their point of view, is what they say fact? Or am I just easily persuaded? Questions to consider:įacts seems like a very simple concept, but as proposed at the start of this chapter, epistemology, a person’s worldview about what is “knowable and known,” can leave a lot of room for interpretation. For example, facts, logic, beliefs, information, and rationality may raise some questions for you and entice you to learn more by surfing the Internet for ideas about them (I encourage this behaviour). There are a few items that might be pulled out of that definition and explored further. Reason is the capacity of consciously making sense of things, establishing and verifying facts, applying logic, and adapting or justifying practices, institutions and beliefs based on new or existing information. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, mathematics, and art and is normally considered to be a distinguishing ability possessed by humans. Reason, or an aspect of it, is sometimes referred to as rationality (Wikipedia, n.d.). ![]() Wikipedia describes Reason (as a noun) the following way: The logical place to start with Reasoning (and logic is an important aspect of reason) might be with a definition of reason, and some of its associated processes. The purpose of this questionnaire was to start you thinking about how much an influence your cultural experience (where, how, and by whom you were raised and educated) may have on what you believe you “know,” and whether or not you have practiced thinking critically about what you know. You started out this unit with a Cultural Awareness questionnaire and you may begin to see places and spaces where you are less open-minded about cultural differences than you might have thought. In this unit, you are going to explore an even wider viewpoint related to Reasoning. In Unit 2, you reviewed a History of Thinking, albeit a brief and predominantly male view of that history, and you also considered a feminist point of view. There are have been many, many humans, from all cultures, that have thought about, designed, discussed, and improved the practice of reasoning over many years. Humans have been around for approximately 300,000 years, with some evidence of their capacity to reason for about 50,000 years. First, it’s arrogant to assume that this instance of a critical thinking course, or my modern view of the practice of critical thinking is the first, or first one-thousandth in history. There are a number of justifications to approach any discipline by reviewing history. Unit 3 – Part 2 – History of Reasoning History of Reasoning
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