Quotes About Reasoning

Math is pretty straightforward.

One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.

in our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.' – David Hume, Scottish philosopher

The fact that conservative Christians often feel closer to politically conservative non-Christians than to their liberal sisters and brothers in Christ, and vice-versa, makes me think we're all more immersed in worldly ways of reasoning than we are in the Christian story. Just as Scripture makes it clear that Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free are one in Christ, conservatives and liberals need to know one another as "one" in Christ.

For my own part, I can't help thinking that while the trend away from formal discipline is clearly general across the Western world, no people is perhaps as perplexed as the Italians with the whole problem of how to make a child do what it does not want to do. Perhaps because Italian parents so rarely find any good reason for not doing what they want to do.

5. No puedes hacer entrar en razón a alguien sobre algo que no ha razonado por sí mismo.

We'd all be happier and more successful if we could learn to be chefs more often—which just takes some self-awareness of the times we're being a cook and an epiphany that it's not actually as scary as it seems to reason independently and act on it.

When we fail to reason honestly, we have lost our connection to the world and to one another.

5—You can't reason someone out of something they didn't reason themselves into. #6—"Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. You'll avoid the tough decisions, and you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted."—Colin Powell #7—"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."—Epictetus

5—You can't reason someone out of something they didn't reason themselves into. #6—"Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. You'll avoid the tough decisions, and you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted."—Colin Powell #7—"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."—Epictetus Cato

A good general strategy is reasoning counterfactually: if someone tells you that X is true, ask yourself—(i) what would they say if X really is true, and (ii) what would they say if X is false? If the answer to (i) and (ii) is "they will say roughly what they just said now," then their words provided you with exactly zero information. In general, know when it's really important not to take people's words at 100 percent face value.

Julia is the co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality, a nonprofit that runs workshops on improving reasoning and decision-making.

A good general strategy is reasoning counterfactually: if someone tells you that X is true, ask yourself—(i) what would they say if X really is true, and (ii) what would they say if X is false? If the answer to (i) and (ii) is "they will say roughly what they just said now," then their words provided you with exactly zero information.

the problem with accepting things that are contradictory as possibly right is that you cannot possibly be thinking yourself when you do it.

Non c'è niente di più pericoloso [...] che sottovalutare il proprio avversario, ignorare la sua logica e, tanto per negargli ogni singola ragione, definirlo un «pazzo».

That was the reasoning behind learning to play bass, and then after that it was more like it was neat to play songs together - for me to play bass and for him to play guitar.

We don't deliberately set out to offend. Unless we feel it's justified.

The mind has its own logic but does not often let others in on it.

You gotta ask 'why' questions. 'Why did you do this?' A 'why' question you can't answer with one word.

Hamas and Hezbollah operate within geopolitical norms. They can be negotiated and reasoned with. ISIL is a different animal altogether - a religious cult an order of magnitude more extreme than even the most extreme Islamic groups of the past.

Inconsistencies of opinion, arising from changes of circumstances, are often justifiable.

Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against.

The fatal errors of life are not due to man's being unreasonable: an unreasonable moment may be one's finest moment. They are due to man's being logical.

If one listens one may be convinced; and a man who allows himself to be convinced by an argument is a thoroughly unreasonable person