Evaluate the Strengths and Weaknesses of Reason as a Way of Knowing
There are four main ways of knowing – reason, perception, language and emotion. However each one of them have their own strengths and weaknesses and only by knowing them will we be able to better use these ways of knowing to gain knowledge. This essay will seek to examine the strengths and weaknesses of reason as a way of knowing.
Reason is often seen as one of the most powerful ways of knowing – for it ‘seems to give us certainty’ (Lagemaat, 112). Reason uses logic to form arguments and conclusions. A benefit of reason using logic in reason is that it allows us access to innate or a priori knowledge – knowledge we cannot access any other way. One definition of A priori knowledge is innate knowledge that is not derived from experience but rather, are universal rules that we apply. (Cahn,Eckert,Buckley). There are several different forms that reason takes but these are mainly inductive and deductive reasoning – which will be discussed later in the essay.
A major strength of reason as a way of knowing is that the information we gather from using it is certain. This is a great strength because we are provided with a strong prediction model that we can build knowledge upon, thus providing us with information that we can believe to be true.
We look to how this is applied in an area of knowledge the natural sciences. Take for instance the concept of neutralization reactions in Chemistry. In theory we know that a base would react with an acid to produce salt and water – a hypothesis that, up till this point, has been proven to be true – to form a salt and water. If we are presented with the following argument:
All bases react with acids to form salt and water.
Unknown sample X reacted with an acid and formed salt and water.
We can conclude that unknown sample X is a base.
We used deductive reasoning to arrive at the conclusion above. Deductive reasoning provides us with a conclusion that is absolutely certain. The way deduction works is that we go from
Reason is often seen as one of the most powerful ways of knowing – for it ‘seems to give us certainty’ (Lagemaat, 112). Reason uses logic to form arguments and conclusions. A benefit of reason using logic in reason is that it allows us access to innate or a priori knowledge – knowledge we cannot access any other way. One definition of A priori knowledge is innate knowledge that is not derived from experience but rather, are universal rules that we apply. (Cahn,Eckert,Buckley). There are several different forms that reason takes but these are mainly inductive and deductive reasoning – which will be discussed later in the essay.
A major strength of reason as a way of knowing is that the information we gather from using it is certain. This is a great strength because we are provided with a strong prediction model that we can build knowledge upon, thus providing us with information that we can believe to be true.
We look to how this is applied in an area of knowledge the natural sciences. Take for instance the concept of neutralization reactions in Chemistry. In theory we know that a base would react with an acid to produce salt and water – a hypothesis that, up till this point, has been proven to be true – to form a salt and water. If we are presented with the following argument:
All bases react with acids to form salt and water.
Unknown sample X reacted with an acid and formed salt and water.
We can conclude that unknown sample X is a base.
We used deductive reasoning to arrive at the conclusion above. Deductive reasoning provides us with a conclusion that is absolutely certain. The way deduction works is that we go from
Cited: Cahn, Steven M., Maureen Eckert, and Robert Buckley. Knowledge and Reality: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004. Print. Alchin, Nicholas. Theory of Knowledge. London: John Murray, 2003. Print. Lagemaat, Richard Van De. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print.