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How We Reason 1st Edition

by Philip Johnson-Laird (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars 6 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0199551330
ISBN-10: 0199551332
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 584 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (January 15, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0199551332
  • ISBN-13: 978-0199551330
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 1.4 x 6.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #371,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 starsModel Behavior
By John M. Ford TOP 1000 REVIEWER on October 14, 2012
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Philip Johnson-Laird's most recent book is about how we reason, as we might infer from its title. It continues the discussion of mental models begun in his 1986 book titled--wait for it--Mental Models. The author describes the mental mechanisms used to reason at a level of detail useful to researchers in this area. Those interested in a discussion of the steps and strategies of reasoning as non-specialists see it might be better served by Frank Yates' Judgment and Decision Making or Decision Management: How to Assure Better Decisions in Your Company.

This book dives into the details. Previous approaches have defined reason as "[a] set of processes that construct and evaluate implications among sets of propositions." Contrary to our expectations, the author argues, formal logic cannot be the basis for human reason. Johnson-Laird reviews evidence to this effect. For example, there are many valid conclusions that we never bother to draw because they are of no practical use to us. We also make systematic errors in reasoning that we would not make using logic. The content of logic problems used in research studies greatly affects their difficulty; it would not if logic were the primary process. We use knowledge to help us imagine possibilities and then evaluate the possibilities for consistency with other evidence.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsintriguing, challenging, and beautiful
By Diana Senechal on October 5, 2010
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This book has earned my confidence, not only because of the author's excellent writing and argument but because he acknowledges how little we know about human reason.

I have found myself thinking about certain chapters when taking walks--for instance, "The Puzzles of If," where Professor Johnson-Laird shows that "if-then" statements (presumably straightforward) actually come in great variety and require different kinds of reasoning.

The chapter on the Wright brothers should be required reading for aspiring teachers. Children are often told that the Wright brothers were successful because they never gave up. Certainly their perseverance helped, but it was not enough in itself. Johnson-Laird argues convincingly that what set them apart was their reasoning. He explains this in detail--and the details are much more intersting than bland stories about how they kept on trying and never gave up.

The central argument about mental models is compelling, and I enjoy everything along the way--the logic puzzles, the descriptions of experiments, the stories. There are just a few flaws in wording that I have spotted. For instance, on p. 161, it reads, "Is it true that optimists believe that optimists exist?" In order to make sense in context, it really should read, "Is it true that an optimist is anyone who believes that optimists exist?" But that is a minor quibble.

The Auden quotes are wonderful throughout, both in themselves and in relation to the text. I am grateful that the author stayed with Auden instead of quoting from many different authors. It seems that this may have something to do with the spirit of the book. Good reasoning is not flighty.

One more thing I appreciate: the book has meaning for the layperson and scholar alike.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsA comprehensive volume on logical thinking
By Dr. H. A. Jones on August 15, 2012
Format: Paperback
The size, publisher and subject matter of this book indicate that it is intended primarily for academic readership. However, the author's style is engaging and the text is accessible to any non-specialist interested in this topic, though some acquaintance with the nature of philosophical argument would make hte book more accessible. Philip Johnson-Laird is now a Professor of Psychology at Princeton University in New Jersey, having previously been on the staff at University College, London, and the Universities of Sussex and Cambridge, UK; he is the author of several books on this subject.

According to the author, we do not reason by logic or by using (if only subconsciously) the laws of probability but by considering all the possibilities of a situation and then determining what these possibilities have in common. The first parts of this book examine The World in Our Conscious Minds and The World in Our Unconscious Minds: of this part of the book the author argues `that we grasp the meanings of propositions and then use these meanings and our knowledge to construct mental models of the significance of the propositions', claiming that `all thought processes are unconscious, so these conscious deductions depend on unconscious processes.' The author then goes on to consider How we Make Deductions and How We Make Inductions: scientists and mathematicians will find this intriguing as it is about how we make connections between these propositions. The next Part explores What Makes Us Rational with an explanation of counter-examples and an investigation of the meaning of truth - the correspondence and the coherence theories of truth, and whether all propositions are necessarily either true or false.Read more ›
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