TESTIMONY, REASONS AND RATIONALITY

 

J U D G M E N T S   A N D   C O N F I R M A T I O N S

We have to use evidence, reasons and arguments in our daily lives. It presents the relationship between emotion and memory activation. The belief in logic and rationality as the basic and distinctive feature of human capacity to believe that we can secure the essence of the world is much more substantially and deeply rooted. The belief in rationality can be firmly rooted in truth and knowledge. Cause works at a fundamentally different level than rationality. Forms of reasoning focus on objects, and reason focuses on models of reasoning. 

People often make mistakes. Those errors should be reported and misidentified. It is not always an easy task. Some of the errors so identified are unreliable sources of information. Accurate reasons and correct arguments are essential elements for building evidence. 

Reason works at a fundamentally different level than rationality. Forms of reasoning refer to objects. Reason focuses on models of reasoning. At least this is why Kant said. "Reason is never instantly connected to an object, but only understanding." The reason, on the other hand, can be said to be further reached. It refers to the host of different versions of logic and evaluates their interrelationships. Structural considerations suggest that this responsibility cannot be adequately fulfilled by any logic.

E V I D E N C E

This image shows a great detective named Sherlock Holmes. 

He made the evidence a powerful factor.

The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word testis, referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. The philosophy of testimony considers the nature of language and knowledge's confluence, which occurs when beliefs are transferred between speakers and hearers through testimony. Testimony constitutes words, gestures, or utterances that convey beliefs. In the field of philosophy, testimony is defined as the intentional transfer of a belief from one person to another. The transfer can be verbal, written, or signaled in some way. 

"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

- Christopher Hitchens -

C l a s s i f i c a t i o n   O f   E v i d e n c e

Our central question of evidence can be divided into two dimensions, and presents four clear questions for investigation. The dimensions are, 

• Descriptive - Descriptive is defined as giving details or something that describes. An example of descriptive is someone giving a very detailed account of an experience they had; a descriptive person.
• Normative - Normative generally means relating to an evaluative standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good or desirable or permissible and others as bad or undesirable or impermissible.

and the four reference questions are, 

1. Descriptive local question - How do human hearers typically form belief in response to testimony? In particular, do they just trust their informant unthinkingly, blindly; or do they somehow (consciously, or sub-consciously) evaluate the informant for trustworthiness, and believe what they are told only if the evaluation is positive? (The process of testimony)
2. Normative local question - In what conditions, and with what controls, should a mature adult hearer believe what she is told, on some particular occasion? (Fresh instances of testimony, for an adult hearer)
3. Descriptive global question - What is the actual place of testimony-beliefs overall, in a person's structure of empirical belief? What is the extent of dependence on testimony for grounding (epistemic dependence) of our beliefs? And what is the relation between testimony and our other sources of empirical belief: perception, memory, and deductive and inductive inference from empirical premises?
4. Normative global question - How, if ever, can a system of beliefs with uneliminated epistemic dependence on testimony be justified?

R E A S O N S

Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic to seek truth and draw conclusions from 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 is sometimes referred to as rationality.

Reasoning is associated with the acts of thinking and cognition, and involves using one's intellect. The field of logic studies the ways in which humans can use formal reasoning to produce logically valid arguments.

"Have a very good reason for everything you do."

- Laurence Olivier -

Reasoning may be subdivided into forms of logical reasoning, such as: deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and abductive reasoning.

• Deductive reasoning - Deduction is a form of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises. A deduction is also the conclusion reached by a deductive reasoning process.
• Inductive reasoning - Induction is a form of inference producing propositions about unobserved objects or types, either specifically or generally, based on previous observation. It is used to ascribe properties or relations to objects or types based on previous observations or experiences, or to formulate general statements or laws based on limited observations of recurring phenomenal patterns.
• Abductive reasoning - Abductive reasoning, or argument to the best explanation, is a form of reasoning that doesn't fit in deductive or inductive, since it starts with incomplete set of observations and proceeds with likely possible explanations so the conclusion in an abductive argument does not follow with certainty from its premises and concerns something unobserved.

"All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, 

and ends with reason. 

There is nothing higher than reason."

- Immanuel Kant - 

R A T I O N A L I T Y

Rationality is the quality or state of being rational–that is, being based on or agreeable to reason. Rationality implies the conformity of one's beliefs with one's reasons to believe, and of one's actions with one's reasons for action. "Rationality" has different specialized meanings in philosophy, economics, sociology, psychology, evolutionary biology, game theory and political science.

In the psychology of reasoning, psychologists and cognitive scientists have defended different positions on human rationality. One prominent view, due to Philip Johnson-Laird and Ruth M.J. Byrne among others is that humans are rational in principle but they err in practice, that is, humans have the competence to be rational but their performance is limited by various factors.

"Sometimes emotions are more important than rationality."

- Marco Bizzarri - 

Reasoning is associated with the acts of thinking and cognition, and involves using one's intellect. The field of logic studies the ways in which humans can use formal reasoning to produce logically valid arguments and rationality is the quality or state of being rational that is, being based on or agreeable to reason.

"Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality."

- Bertrand Russell - 

Rationalism is a characteristic of the mental lives of living beings who are considered to be rational. It can be intelligent and world-oriented, which means the ability to think and act intelligently. In these sensitivities, humans as well as animals can be rational. Rationalism in this sense is the understanding of the considerations that motivate us to believe and act in some way on our causes and the ability to evaluate those causes that determine whether they are good causes or not. 

I hope you were able to learn a lot of new information about learning, knowledge and understanding based on the above. Add these things to your life. 

- T h a n k  Y o u -

Ashan Sajitha

ashann188@gmail.com