How we Reason
This chapter explains the heart of a human's reasoning. Mental models of possibilities are at the heart of this reasoning. The theory confronts two challenges that pull in opposite directions. It must account for the nature of the errors that are made in reasoning; and it must explain the potential for rationality. At the heart of human rationality are some simple principles that are recognized: a conclusion must be the case if it holds in all the possibilities compatible with the premises. The models that have been argued for here underlie deduction, induction, and abduction. The argument of this book is that reasoning depends on mental models, and that a conclusion can be comprehended which follows from premises if it holds for every model of the premises.
Keywords: reasoning, human rationality, mental models of possibilities, deduction, induction, abduction
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .