PHL 214 Study Guide - Fritz Kreisler, False Premise, Circular Reasoning
18 Jun 2013
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Document Summary
The ability to reason is the fundamental characteristic of human beings. We reason about everything from the meaning of life to what to have for dinner. Much of the time we are not engaged in conscious reasoning, often we simply listen to what others say, take note of things around us, experience feelings, daydreams and so forth. To understand reasoning properly, however, we need to understand how it differs from mere thinking. When we are merely thinking, our thoughts simply come to us, one after another; when we reason, we actively link thoughts together in such a way that we believe one thought provides support for another thought. The active process of reasoning is termed inference. Inference involves a special relationship between different thoughts: when we infer b from a, we move from a to b because we believe that a supports or justifies or makes it reasonable to believe in the truth of b.
