Quotes About Reasoning

solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward.

I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing your inferences.

In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backwards. That

É um grande erro teorizar antes de ter todos os indícios. Prejudica o raciocínio.

We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.

When a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation. (Sherlock)

No veo nada- respondí [...] -Muy al contrario, Watson, lo ve usted todo. Sin embargo, no razona a partit de lo que ve

Still, it is an error to argue in front of your data. You find yourself insensibly twisting them round to fit your theories.

Arthur Conan Doyle

You will not apply my precept, he said, shaking his head. How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? We know that he did not come through the door, the window, or the chimney. We also know that he could not have been concealed in the room, as there is no concealment possible. When, then, did he come? Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four

It is a capital mistake to theorise before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgement.

Una vieja máxima mía dice que, cuando has eliminado lo imposible, lo que queda, por muy improbable que parezca, tiene que ser la verdad.

Ya le he explicado otras veces que en esta clase de casos lo extraordinario constituye antes que un estorbo, una fuente de indicios. La clave reside en razonar a la inversa, cosa, sea dicho de paso, tan útil como sencilla, y poquísimo practicada

I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. What do you deduce from it?

Este o greÈ™eal? capital? s? emiÈ›i teorii înainte de a avea informaÈ›ii. F?r? s?-È›i dai seama, începi s? distorsionezi faptele ca s? se potriveasc? cu teoriile, în loc ca teoriile s? se potriveasc? cu faptele.

Dreaming could be described as a de-differentiation of reasoning-matrices and even, up to a point, of personal identity.

A faith is not acquired by reasoning. One does not fall in love with a woman, or enter the womb of a church, as a result of logical persuasion. Reason may defend an act of faith-but only after the act has been committed, and the man com­mitted to the act.

The moment of truth, the sudden emergence of a new insight, is an act of intuition. Such intuitions give the appearance of miraculous flashes, or short-circuits of reasoning. In fact they may be likened to an immersed chain, of which only the beginning and the end are visible above the surface of consciousness. The dive vanishes at one end of the chain and comes up at the other end, guided by invisible links.

The only certain rule is the one that Aristotle already gave: do not dispute with anyone and everyone, but only with those people you know who are intelligent enough to avoid saying things that are so stupid as to expose themselves to humiliation, who appreciate the truth, and who gladly listen to good reasons, even when the opponent claims them, and who are balanced enough to bear a defeat when the truth is on the other side.

The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.

Gesunder Menschenverstand kann fast jeden Grad von Bildung ersetzen, aber kein Grad von Bildung den gesunden Menschenverstand.

Under presupposition of free will each human action would be an inexplicable miracle - an effect without cause. And if one dares the attempt to make such a liberum arbitrium indifferentiae imaginable to oneself, one will soon become aware that here the understanding quite genuinely comes to a standstill: it has no form for thinking of such a thing.

Abstract reasoning serves rather to fix the immediate cognition of the understanding for reason by setting it down in abstract concepts, that is, by making it clear,e i.e. putting it into a state to be interpreted for others, to make it meaningful.f –

Dowodz?c komukolwiek zupe?nie spokojnie, ?e nie ma racji, a wi?c b??dnie my?li i s?dzi — a bywa to przy ka?dym dialektycznym zwyci?stwie — z?o?cisz go wi?cej ni? gburowato?ci? i obelgami