Reasons: Cause, Justification, Explanation for Events/Actions - Essay Sample

Introduction

Reason from the broader perspective means a cause, a justification, or explanation for the occurrence of an event or action. Relating reason to science gives the term a critical face that makes it useful to several faculties and disciplines. For instance, in philosophy, it becomes the process and faculty of drawing and making logical inferences to scientific facts, and it is also useful in some other several lower senses. On the contrary, reason opposes perception, sensation, desire, and feeling in the existence in which empiricists deny by which people apprehend the fundamental truths intuitively. Notably, it is those fundamental truths that cause or are the reasons that scientists get all the derivative facts upon which they base their scientific arguments. According to Emmanuel Kant, the German philosopher, the intention is the cornerstone where scientists synthesize unity through general principles. This concept is one that intellects provide to ensure that reason incorporates well in the world of science by bringing substantive meaning to discoveries and theories. Therefore, this exposition speaks about the idea by relating it to different disciplines and faculties to give its essence in scientific arguments.

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As mentioned before, reason gives purpose to an event or action, and over the years, social science has been evolving away from natural science from the term reason. So, to understand the functioning of social life or mechanisms involved, the challenge is to achieve continuity within the relating natural science. First, the natural science that neighbors social life includes biology, ecology, neuroscience, and many others (Derry 11). This relationship gives meaning to the general purpose of reason to various disciplines in science and life. In the perspective of formal logic, Aristotle classifies the process of drawing inferences as either deductive or inductive. That is to say, the classification of presumptions can take place from generals to particulars or from particulars to generals.

Reason in theology distinguishes from the faith, making it a human intelligence that people exercise upon religious truth. By so doing, it separates logic by way of explanation or using discovery. Therefore, the theological definition of purpose provides its usage limits, laying down differently in different religious institutions, and periodic of human thoughts. For instance, in modern Christianity, especially in Protestants institutions, people tend to allow a wide field of reason. However, the reservations involved are reasonably necessary as a sphere of faith in the supernatural truths of theological beliefs.

The Science Process

Science means knowledge that revolves around general truths or covers the operation of the general laws of life, mainly when acquired and confirmed through scientific processes. One of the most significant methods scientists use to test and confirm scientific knowledge is by testing a hypothesis through repeated experiments. As much as tests and other experimental methods may be inherent to science as essential to human life, it is inadequate to define science. It may be so because it sounds relatively easy to apply the scientific methods to disciplines that directly relate to science, such as chemistry and physics. On the contrary, science becomes less applicable to subjects like paleoanthropology, geology, psychology, and archeology because it becomes more complex to repeat experiments (Messori 24). Unfortunately, these areas of study are still science, for instance, considering archeology; one may not be in a position to perform repeated experiments, but he or she can even support the hypothesis. For example, it is easy to hypothesize that a particular culture existed based on finding a piece of remain found in an archeological site.

Moreover, the developing hypothesis could come from various characteristics of the culture in question, and they may either be plausible and acceptable tentatively or false and rejected due to confusion from findings and data. However, by having a group of disproven hypothesis may ultimately give room for the development of a theory. An approach becomes a tested and confirmed in-depth explanation for a phenomenon or observation supported by a wide range of evidence from such events. Therefore, methods developed through such processes give science another meaning, i.e., the field of study that tries to comprehend the natural existence of the universe.

Reason and Logical Reasoning

All forms of science have one thing in common, and that is the final goal of knowing. Therefore, inquiry as a result of curiosity is the main driving factor for the development of scientific concepts. Scientists are working hard to understand the world and how it operates, and by so doing, they employ two significant logical thinking methods, i.e., inductive and deductive reasoning. As inductive reasoning present observations and conclude them, deductive reason current general premise while giving predicted results is illustrated below;

Inductive Reasoning Deductive Reasoning

Presents several observations from which scientists draw conclusions Offers a general proposition from which scientists predict specific results

Observation General Premise

Living things of a species are not all the same

Individual living things compete for scarce resources

Species generally adapt to their environments Individual living things mostly adapt to their environments are likely to survive and pass their characteristics on to the next generation of their lives.

Conclusion Predicted Results

Individual living things mostly adapt to their environments are likely to survive and pass their characteristics on to the next generation of their lives. If the average temperature in a given habitat increases or decreases due to changes in climate, only living things better adapt to either the warmer of the cold temperatures will survive the changes, unlike their counterparts.

Table 1: Scientific Reasoning, scientists employ two types of reasoning to advance knowledge (Andre 275). Retrieved from https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_and_General_Biology/Book%3A_General_Biology_(Boundless)/1%3A_The_Study_of_Life/1.1%3A_The_Science_of_Biology/1.1B%3A_Scientific_Reasoning

Inductive reasoning gives room for logical thinking that makes use of related observations before arriving at a general conclusion. Inductive reasoning is common in descriptive science. For example, a scientist dealing with life, such as a biologist will make keen observations while recording them down. The data involved in this process may either be qualitative or quantitative, and he or she may supplement the information gathered with videos, drawings, and pictures to make it more appealing and easy to understand.

From the several recorded observations, the biologist is in a position to make inferences known as inductions based on the evidence from the previously registered data. Notably, the section of the biologist brain that ignites to develop such assumptions is the part that controls the responses to the selected stimulus. In this case, it is the food chosen that the biologists investigated. Furthermore, the ignition of the various parts of the brain is as a result of the absorption of excessive of derivatives from the radioactive sugar by the active components of the brain. After that, a brain scanner observes the increase in the radioactivity process in mind then the biologist stimulates that part of the brain to find results from similar responses.

On the other hand, deductive reasoning considers a type of logical thinking used in hypothesis-based science. Here, the pattern of reasoning moves in the opposite direction when compared to inductive logic because it uses a law or general principle in forecasting specific results. From the general principles that deductive reasoning use, a scientist can deduce and predict particular outcomes that are valid so long as the laws are also valid; the study of climate change illustrates this reasoning. For example, a scientist can predict that if the climate changes to warm in a given place, the distribution of plants and animals should also be changing. There have been several written and tested predictions of this type, and there are too many such predicted changes observed in a lifetime. For instance, farmers modifying arable lands for agricultural practices correlated with climatic changes at the average atmospheric temperatures.

Generally, both deductive and inductive logical thinking relate to the two major scientific study pathways, i.e., hypothesis-based and descriptive science. Descriptive science (inductive) aims to observe, explore, and discover, while hypothesis-based science (deductive), begins from a problem or a specific question. It may also start from a solution or a potential answer that is testable. The distinction between these two scientific approaches usually is unclear, and most scientific efforts combine both methods. When scientists consider how easy observation can lead to specific questions or the development of a particular problem. Therefore hypothesis-based and descriptive sciences are in constant dialogue that may not end any time soon.

Reason and Critical Reasoning

When people engage their minds in critical thinking, they go through a mental process of analyzing and evaluating information to come up with the most desirable feedback. “Critical” may also mean a stretched effort to see things clearly and in an accurate manner to be in a position to give it a fair judgment. Human beings need to think critically to assess their role in society and analyze the consequences of the actions they take. Thus, they must be in a position to evaluate and decide on what is taking place in a particular situation. Therefore, we need to organize our thinking while integrating the information at hand before making viable decisions or reactions to that information. By doing so, we are distinguishing facts from opinion and later get to a point where we can weigh the potential of our outcomes related to what we are aiming to achieve.

By indulging in the critical thinking process instead of reacting out of emotional influence towards a problem, scientifically, we employ strategies to help us learn from previous experiences. Besides, it helps us prevent any undesirable happening, and the result from that process is not only a reasonable solution but also practical. It helps in making the players in making better decisions in the future. This type of thinking is self-monitored, self-disciplined thinking that promotes open-mindedness that puts things in the right perspective with a positive attitude.

Scientists consider critical thinking as essential in psychological science because it enables thinkers to evaluate, analyze, restructure, and explain the reasoning. As a result, the entire process decreases the risk of adopting and acting upon an issue or thinking with a false premise. Within the scope of scientific skepticisms and methods, the critical thinking process involves looking for information and evaluating it to reach a clear and justified conclusion. Besides, within the framework, people must acknowledge that they have different blind spots. Therefore, they have to learn the art of suspending general judgments to develop critical thinking abilities.

Similarly, there are other ways of improving critical thinking in the scientific context, such as developing intellectual humility and empathy. Empathy requires extensive experience in entering and constructing points of view accurately when one has negative feelings. On the other hand, humility requires the ability to explore and identify the level of ignorance possessed by an individual in a matter that needs scientific proof. It is essential to have an idea or a hint of what one does not k...