What is Logical Reasoning?

What is Logical Reasoning?

What do we mean by “logical reasoning”?

Logical reasoning (LR) is a process of thinking about and analyzing arguments, including assessing the strength, validity, cogency and soundness of the conclusion. Informal logic -- often referred to as critical thinking -- is used to evaluate arguments in their natural everyday, real-world language. Formal logic -- also referred to as symbolic logic -- applies rules of logic to formulate, analyze, or consider the implications or consequences of a claim, argument, or conclusion.

Like critical thinking, formulating a logical argument begins with having a clear purpose: focusing on the question or issue one is investigating or making an argument about. Additional features of formulating and analyzing logical arguments include the following.

• Formulating logical arguments includes:

  1. Making specific and tangible assertions (e.g., stating your position).

  2. Identifying underlying assumptions, axioms, evidence, or data.

  3. Making any hidden assumptions explicit.

  4. Ensuring that the premises to support your conclusion follow the line of reasoning.

  5. Marshaling and organizing evidence appropriately (in cases where evidence is involved.)

  6. Avoiding logical fallacies.

• Analyzing logical arguments includes:

  1. Assessing whether the argument is deductive or inductive.

  2. Using the rules of logic to establish the validity and soundness (deductive) and strength and cogency (inductive) of conclusions, based on whether conclusions follow from the claims.

  3. Deconstructing arguments into their constituent propositions.

  4. Identifying logical contradictions and logical fallacies.

What are the products of logical reasoning?

Logical reasoning may:

• Reveal relationships between data, premises, and conclusions that were not previously known.

• Highlight new relationships to produce increasingly complex connections between data, premises, and conclusions.

• Reduce the bias in an argument or conclusion.

• Reduce the ambiguity in an argument.

• Increase the clarity of an argument.

Enhancing one’s LR skills, like CT, may lead to improving one’s digital and information literacy by empowering the person to ask questions, investigate assumptions and relationships, and vet evidence.

What is the relationship between logical reasoning and critical thinking?

We consider LR to be a subcategory of CT, but not equivalent to CT. Studying logical reasoning, especially informal logic, helps thinkers identify and avoid fallacious arguments. Thinking logically is a requirement of critical thinking; however, the converse is not necessarily true. To illustrate the claim that it is possible to be logical without thinking critically, we offer the following analogy: Computers can be programmed to use LR. They can apply a set of axioms to propositions and prove theorems that follow from those sets of axioms, using the rules of logic. But computers cannot make evaluative judgments about the relative validity or relevance of the conclusions or axioms. Therefore, the application of a specifically ordered and constrained process of thinking and argumentation (LR) must be supplemented with CT to ensure that one reaches meaningful, valid conclusions.