Fourth Post
Healthy Reasoning
A grace-filled Byzantine Calendar Feast of the Wonderworker Bishop Tychon of Amathunsa, y'all! (It's a Feria on the Gregorian Calendar.)
OK, let's start with reasoning. Can't do good Natural Science without it.
DEDUCTIVE: from the general to the particular. You take general principles and concrete data that apply to the situation that you're trying to figure out, and see where they intersect so as to get an explanation.
For example, you see Buster, your toy poodle, standing on the hood of your car.
How did he get there?
General principles and concrete info that apply to the puzzle:
— Toy poodles don't jump up three feet.
— Fifi, the neighbor's vicious bulldog, hates Buster.
— Buster is a well-mannered dog, so you just let him out on the driveway to walk around.
— Your kindhearted son was with Buster.
— Your car was in the driveway.
— A loud commotion next door caught your attention as you looked through the window and saw an enraged Fifi breaking out of her yard making a beeline for your driveway, followed by your neighbor frantically chasing her.
— In the few seconds it took for you to bolt outside, your neighbor had scooped up Fifi, shouted an apology, and made for his yard.
SO, intersecting all the above information, you deduce that your kindhearted son had quickly picked Buster up out of harm’s way and deposited him on the nearest safe surface.
The pitfalls for deductive reasoning are that not all general principles or information are always considered.
INDUCTIVE: from the particular to the general.
It's seventy degrees out (twenty-one Celsius). Every time a dark cloud has approached at that temperature, it has rained, not snowed. This has happened many times before. A dark cloud is approaching, therefore it's going to rain, not snow.
The pitfalls of inductive reasoning are understood by turkeys (or would be if they possessed intellects 😉.): “Farmer Jones has been bringing my grain breakfast to me every dawn for a year now, so it's dawn of the day before Thanksgiving and therefore he's bringing…WHAT?!!!!!”
Thus, when dealing with anything that requires reasoning, we need to consider how we reason, and thus make sure that we're aware of the limitations before holding firmly to a conclusion that might not be as reliable as we think it is. This has GREAT impact on doing Natural Science.
Nostra Mater de Perpetuo Succursu, adiuva nos!
Ademar