T-713-MERS-2024 Main
Link to Lecture Notes
| What is Reasoning? | A systematic way of thinking about and manipulating models of relations. A systematic way to create, compare, manipulate and apply models of relations. |
| How is it done? | Via processes that observe rules. |
| What are the main types? | Deduction: All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Hence, Socrates is mortal Abduction: How did this come about? (Sherlock Holmes) Induction: What is the general rule? Analogy: 'This' is like 'that' (in 'this' way). |
| How is it used in science? | In empirical science to unearth the “rules of the universe”. In mathematics as axioms. In philosophy as a way to construct arguments. In computer science to write code. |
| Why does it work? | Because the world's behavior appears to follow rules, in part. |
| Cause-Effect | When the world seems to follow rules reliably, we call this “cause-effect” relations. The more general cause-effect relations are described (in e.g. an abstract language), the more useful they are for getting stuff done. |
| Deduction | Figuring out the implications of facts (or predicting what may come). Producing implications from premises. The premises are given; the work involves everything else. Conclusion is unavoidable given the premises (in a deterministic, axiomatic world). |
| Abduction | Figuring out how things came to be the way they are (or how particular outcomes could be made to come about, or how particular outcomes could be prevented). The outcome is given; the work involves everything else. Sherlock Holmes is a genius abducer. |
| Induction | Figuring out the general case. Making general rules from a (small) set of examples, e.g. 'the sun has risen in the east every morning up until now, hence, the sun will also rise in the east tomorrow.' |
| Analogy | Figuring out how things are similar or different. Making inferences about how something X may be (or is) through a comparison to something else Y, where X and Y share some observed properties. |
| Working Memory (WM) | The part of the cognitive apparatus that holds the contents of what is being thought of at any moment. The psychologist George Miller proposed that human WM can hold 7+/-2 “chunks”. What are 'chunks'? That is a name for whatever that which can be stored in WM and takes up no more than one of its seven (plus-minus two) slots. |
| Ampliative Reasoning | A name for using all reasoning processes discretionarily, as needed, together in the same system or for the same purpose. |
| Subliminal Cognition | A name for cognitive processes that cannot be probed through introspection. |
| Introspection | A name for the cognitive activity of an individual that looks at the contents of its own mind (whether it involves contents at the present time or contents that it had in the past), for reporting to others or for thinking about thinking. |
| What is given | A set of premises / starting point is given. |
| Mapping | General → Specific |
| What it's used for | Figuring out the implications of facts (or predicting what may come). Producing implications from premises. |
| Example | “The last domino will fall when all the other dominos between the first and the last have fallen”. |
| What is given | A particular outcome X is given. |
| Mapping | Outcome → Precursors |
| What is done | Figuring out how things came to be the way they are (or how particular outcomes could be made to come about, or how particular outcomes could be prevented). |
| Example | Sherlock Holmes, who is a genius abducer. |
| What is given | A small set of examples is given. |
| Mapping | Specific → General |
| What is done | Figuring out the general case. Making general rules from a (small) set of examples. |
| Example | “The sun has risen in the East every morning up until now, hence, the sun will also rise in the East tomorrow”. |
| What is given | A set of two (or more) things is given. |
| Mapping | Features → Features |
| What is done | Figuring out how things are similar or different. Making inferences about how something X may be (or is) through a comparison to something else Y, where X and Y share some observed properties. |
| Example | “What does a pen have in common with an arrow?” “What is similar / different between a rock and a ball?” |
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