"The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct." - Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC-43 BC), a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul and constitutionalist However, there is two kinds of reasoning, Deductive and Inductive as explained by Thomas Troward (1847-1916), an English author whose works influenced the New Thought Movement. Deductive reasoning is the pure syllogism which shows why a third proposition must necessarily result if two others are assumed, but which does not help us to determine whether the two initial statements are true or not. To determine this is the province of inductive reasoning which draws its conclusions from the observation of a series of facts. Deductive reasoning proceeds on the assumption of the correctness of certain hypotheses or suppositions with which it sets out: it is NOT concerned with the truth or falsity of those suppositions, but only with the question as to what results must necessarily follow supposing them to be true. Inductive reasoning; on the other hand, is the process by which we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all. Induction proceeds by the comparison of facts, and deduction by the application of universal principles. It is the deductive method only which is followed by the subjective (conscious) mind. Our subjective mind is entirely under the control of the objective (unconscious) mind. The subjective mind is only able to reason deductively and not inductively, while the objective mind can do both.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:22:04 +0000