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Strengths And Weaknesses Of Reason As A Way Of Knowing Philosophy Essay

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Philosophy
Wordcount: 1459 words Published: 1st Jan 2015

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The knowledge claim that we derive from the topic is “Reason as a way of knowing has its strengths and weaknesses”. The knowledge claim states that there are strengths and weaknesses for the reason as a way of knowing. The knowledge issue which can be expressed is “To what extent does reason as a way of knowing influence our understanding of reality?” The knowledge issue questions that, to what extent do reason as a way of acquiring knowledge can help our understanding process? For the understanding of the topic, the term reason needs to be clarified. In simple terms reason means to think about the specific matter. Reason is the power that every human posses and it gives the ability to thing in focused manner. The reasoning needs to be logical as it is necessary that it should not only give answer to the question but the specific and relevant answer.

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Reasoning is the decisive power which one uses before making any decision. The individual has a power to reason to any extent and to any topic which they desire. As every matter posses of some strength and weaknesses similarly it has been seen that there are strengths as well as weaknesses for reason as a way of knowing. The basis behind me to select this topic for my essay is that we use reason as a way of knowing in each aspect of life. The power to decide comes from the reasoning and the reasoning process need to be sharp as to get to positive thought in the minds. It is also a real life situation as it is very much relevant to one’s life. Reason is used to find the truths in other areas of knowledge and it is easy to filter out the fallacies and false belief made by a person to satisfied the past event. Reason is mainly used to follow with the upcoming events to be occurred in a correct manner. Reason also means explanation to some extent as it explains the answers for few untold questions. Overall it is acceptable if it is said that reason is a decision making tool. It will be very motivating to study reason as a way of knowing and to differentiate between its strengths and weaknesses.

The quote “Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.” written by G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936 reflects the knowledge issue. It can be said that reason is supported by the faith and it can be stated as the strength of reasoning as one of the basic component of life is to keep faith in reality of life. Deductive reasoning can be used as a means to support the argument that can convey the message that, reason is a matter of faith and faith is the understanding of reality so according to deductive reasoning it can be portrayed that reason leads to understanding of reality. As deduction is reasoning from general to particular and induction is reasoning from particular to general. The inductive reason can also be use to determine the strengths and weakness because we get a general result and it can be easily classified into either strength or the weakness.

Reason itself is the important way of knowing and it has influence over all area of knowledge and it also posses the power to hold upon decisions for different area of knowledge. As every coin has two sides, similarly there are strengths and weaknesses for reasoning process. Reasoning in natural science will evoke thoughts leading to inventions and development of human kind and it will become strength, but if the same reasoning is applied in natural science for wrong purpose than it can be proved disastrous and many people may get affected due to unacceptable actions. Similarly in sciences if we look for human science then the strengths can be observed by human positive behavior in reasoning and the weakness can also be clearly seen by the negative approach of the human attitude towards the nature. Everything is based upon reasoning as it changes the approach of the person towards the topic which has been reasoning out by the person. History is another area of knowledge where reasoning is very necessary and essential and it also has its strength where we can study about the past with the help of reasoning as the component. Reasoning in history can also reveal untold facts which can be harmful for the society so it can become a weakness and then the elements for the fallacies come into picture. As an example, in ancient times people had a blind belief that the earth was flat and this turned out to be a famous fallacy but as it was practically proved that the earth was initially round and not flat, it made a new history and changed the existing history with the powers of fact and originally the appreciation goes to the reasoning process which develops the thinking power of human kind and changed the history. It is said that history cannot be changed because which things has happened cannot be changed again because time flew away making the event as history, but the present can be very good which can fade the power of older history then the present will become a history for the generations to come. Moving forward with the arts as an area of knowledge, here we can see that here reason has more weaknesses in compare to strength. The reason has its weak base in field of arts as it is very difficult to understand ones approach towards the piece of art because the perception towards arts changes from person to person and the only strength which can be found in reasoning for arts is that, it has a power to explain too many things in a small piece of work and it also brings out the creativity of the creator. As we come towards ethics as another area of knowledge we get to learn new innovative ideas with the help of reasoning because ethics teaches us the values and if brainstorming is done perfection then the reason can help us in various manner and the weakness can also arise if any concept is misunderstood, here the reasoning process can prove disaster as it will be completely changing our existing ethics. So the reasoning should be done in a correct and appropriate fashion. In the field of mathematics, reasoning is very important because we cannot simply interpret things. If a theory is mathematically proved and accepted then it is the good strength for the subject but it is not an easy task. If the certain theory cannot be proved then it is not appropriate and it’s just a fallacy and it cannot be processed further.

Reason seems to be an excellent way to work along with the community with the understanding of reality and by making use of the real issues that are available to come up with an appropriate theory which can later be tested and can be proved or might not been proved by passing through different tests. This is the general belief among majority of people as it turns out to be a basic knowledge for science. So it can be conveyed that anything which is acceptable by scientific data turns out to be a certain fact. Of course, in every experimental document there is an acknowledgement that might reflect the attitude that the results gained through tests conducted might not be precise or possibility rises that the guess for the result is completely wrong. We can reason upon the wrong answer which we got with lots of effort and the right answer which we got has no longer stronger effect if our another answer is proved wrong. As good as our reason can be proved by scientific studies; it can also be explained through the facts of history which gives us lots of experience. It can easily be conveyed through example that India got independence on 15th August , it cannot be argued that this is not relevant as it is same till today at it will remain same no matter what happens because history cannot be changed and this helps us to reason out things successfully. Accordingly it is not fair to claim that India got independence last year as it is perfectly reasonable by historical facts. Can it be answered that does reason really help us in our searching for knowledgeable matter or it is not the correct way to learn factual things about the world. Even though with the help of advanced science and knowledge about the history, we have many questions which cannot be answered or cannot be explained, Jus for example we cannot say that weather hen came first or the egg in the world.

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Hence we can come up with a conclusion that reason has its strength and weaknesses in all areas of knowledge and it can also be seen that it is relevant to almost all the instances we come across in our life. In order to justify a reason logical, explanations and judgment is particularly necessary. So it can be explained that reason has its strengths and weaknesses.

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