Blog #2 - Question #3 - Reasoning Cogently

Reasoning cogently and being right in fact are two entirely different dilemmas humans face when coming to a conclusion, though both have uses in our capacity to make sense of things from everyday decisions to theoretical knowledge, if left to only one, reasoning incorrectly to a true conclusion is by far better than to reason well to a false one.

Is this statement an oxymoron? Can one really reason well to a false outcome or incorrectly to a true one? The answer to this is yes, though unfortunate, as our feeble minds in the childhood of our species tends to still grasp to conclusions that claim to be true, but rather tend for the most part to be a resounding falsity. An ideological concept would be to reason well to a true conclusion, and one day perhaps when the human brain can handle it, it will.

Merriam-Websters defines Cogent as having power to compel or constrain, appealing forcibly to the mind or reason. It’s etymology from the Latin cogent, cogens present particple of cogens: collect, to drive together, from co- agere to drive. This serves as the literal translation to force together what the mind is cycling through, or making sense of what the internal or external stimulation might be, the thought tied with emotion, although the mind can be unaware and also unconscious of what the two are trying to tie together to form a conclusion. Confused yet? Good, one should be as this is what makes certain things in the mind that we as humans try to understand while coming to conclusions. This can lead some to cognitive dissonance, or the ‘uncomfortable feeling of holding two contradictory ideas’. This often plays out in arguments amongst religious believers and non believers. Most people are unaware of the cogent argument they endure day in and day out, it goes on unnoticed in just about every aspect of our life.

In their book, Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life. Authors Howard Kahane and Nancy Cavender explain that:
“On the whole it’s a lot better reason incorrectly to true - right - conclusions than it is to reason well to false ones. But the most likely way to be right, in the long run, is to reason correctly!” (43).

The idea being as stated earlier, coming to a true or right conclusion is a good thing, though we should strive as humans to reason correctly right from the start. The fact that we are even conscious of this very thing is what has evolved, and set us apart from our primate ancestors, though it is still an evolving process. This can be deduced from the fact that the very word cogent was first used in 1659, the processes in which we make decisions and come to conclusions were there though the word in which we label it was not until then, thus giving us a realistic look at the infancy of our species. Our species has come a long way in regards to reason, though it is only a very small infantile step towards something greater we may or may never come to realize.

-Joe DeSalme
02-28-10