The main topic of this section was reason. Along with self-awareness and the capacity for abstract, the ability to reason is unique to humans.Reason is the capacity for rational thought, inference,and discrimination.

There are two types of reasoning: deduction and induction. Deduction is the power to draw new facts from statements, which we already know to be true. For example, if I know that my mom is supposed to be home at a certain time and see her car in the driveway, I would deduce that she is at home. Induction is making universal generalizations about something based on a limited number of experiences of the thing. If I make a statement all men die, I am saying that based upon my limited experience with me, all men die.

Critical thinking is a way of using reason, and logic to reach a conclusion after careful consideration and thought.There are five steps to critical thinking. The first of these is to know the facts. This means to understand the subject matter, know view before you criticize them, and understand their relation to other facts. The second step is to remember the principle of contradiction, which states that something cannot be and not be at the same time. Either Jesus was the son of God or he wasn't, he cannot be both, nor can he be neither. It dictates that even if you respect someone else's beliefs, it they directly and unavoidably contradict yours, only one of you can be right. The third step you have to do is to define your terms. Much of the validity and weight of your argument is dictated by the way you use and define termes compared to the person you are arguing with as well as the correctness of the terms in general (misusing key terms tends to hurt you credibility). The fourth step is to be intellectually humble. Understanding how much you really don't know. There will always be more to learn. No one disrespects a humble man who admits he made a mistake because that possibility is always there. The fifth and final step is to look for different perspectives. If we don't consider views other than our own, it is impossible to understand the whole of something (blind men and the elephant).

Artsology

The thinker is almost a universal symbol of reason and philosophy, which involves deep thought about our existence and our experiences.

 

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One Question I have at the end of this unit is; Where is the line between morality and legality? My answer is that usually legality is morality, and that frequently there is no distinction between the two. Even if there is an objective morality, the real morality, the one that matters on earth, is the one people believe in. And when that changes, so does the legality of the thing in question.