In this provocative book, Lance Rips describes a unified theory of natural deductive reasoning and fashions a working model of deduction, with strong experimental support, that is capable of playing a central role in mental life.Rips argues that certain inference principles are so central to our notion of intelligence and rationality that they deserve serious psychological investigation to determine their role in individuals' beliefs and conjectures. Asserting that cognitive scientists should consider deductive reasoning as a basis for thinking, Rips develops a theory of natural reasoning abilities and shows how it predicts mental successes and failures in a range of cognitive tasks.In parts I and II of the book Rips builds insights from cognitive psychology, logic, and artificial intelligence into a unified theoretical structure. He defends the idea that deduction depends on the ability to construct mental proofs - actual memory units that link given information to conclusions it warrants. From this base Rips develops a computational model of deduction based on two cognitive skills: the ability to make suppositions or assumptions and the ability to posit sub-goals for conclusions. A wide variety of original experiments support this model, including studies of human subjects evaluating logical arguments as well as following and remembering proofs. Unlike previous theories of mental proof, this one handles names and variables in a general way. This capability enables deduction to play a crucial role in other thought processes,such as classifying and problem solving.In part III Rips compares the theory to earlier approaches in psychology which confined the study of deduction to a small group of tasks, and examines whether the theory is too rational or too irrational in its mode of thought.Lance J. Rips is Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University.
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Lance J. Rips is Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Other/Better Half,
This review is from: The Psychology of Proof: Deductive Reasoning in Human Thinking (Hardcover)
I must say that I tend to like Rips' side of this better than Johnson-Laird's. His experiments were more thorough and better organized, but they fall to the same critique I gave J-L: they were designed to get the results they got. I preferred Rips' side of things even before reading the book, which is why I think it may not be possible to design better experiments--I've yet to meet anyone familiar with the debate who didn't already, before familiarizing himself with the debate, have an entrenched opinion on the matter. But this is no reason not to read up on the subject. This is a central book in the cognitive sciences, is very well done, and makes for exciting, mind-stimulating reading. But there is plenty of work to be done on the topic, and neither J-L nor Rips have done it. Given human nature, such may not be possible.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Execellent cursor examination,
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This review is from: The Psychology of Proof: Deductive Reasoning in Human Thinking (Hardcover)
Review based on a cursory examination by University of Phoenix students in Philosophy 251.We have found the book to be well organized, and detailed. The structure placed the information in an easy to read and presentable manner. The use of strong and sound proofs by experiment and examples supported the overall logic of reasoning in a clear and concise manner. We have found the book to be well thought out and laid out so the reader can learn and follow what is being explained.
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