[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #76 REASONING ABOUT FACTS

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #76

November 29, 2021                                               

Facts #6  

 

REASONING ABOUT FACTS

 

When you reason, you reason using facts and about facts.  The process begins
with data, the data is then turned into facts as a factual statement that
assert something.  The process for turning the details into facts involves
reasoning-how you order your thoughts.  This process is the very way that
you and I construct meaning.  We invent meaning about what exists and so in
our reasoning we make factual statements, "X exists," "There is such a thing
as Y."  We invent meanings about causes, "X causes Y."  We make meanings
about what's important and significant, "X is Z (a value term)."  The bottom
line is that we have to structure facts, to put them together in an ordered
form to construction meaning.

 

In this way each of us invents our sense of reality for ourselves.  We
express this in NLP by calling it a person's model of the world.  This
internal representation of things that we select and present to ourselves
operates like a map-we map what things are, how they work, the rules by
which they work, what we can or should do, etc.  To make all of this work,
we first construct facts and then we work the facts into a coherent picture
or a coherent narrative as the story we tell ourselves.  As we do, we start
to assume our facts and take them for granted.  This moves the facts to a
position where they are unquestioned, and even unquestionable.  They become
the premises upon which we build more elaborate theories and understandings.


 

Amazing, isn't it?  I hope this description brings into focus the critical
nature of facts and the importance of getting your facts right.  This is
such an important piece for clear thinking, rational reasoning, and creation
of knowledge that makes a positive difference in your life.  Only in that
way can your reasoning from the facts give you a map by which you then
navigate your life effectively and productivity.

 

This description also suggests that there are several places where things
can go wrong.  In "getting the facts," you may select the wrong facts or
facts that are irrelevant.  You may encode the facts in a way that is
inaccurate or imprecise which gives you a weak foundation upon which to
build. You could get facts sorted out in inappropriate proportions, that
would distort things.  And even if you get the right facts, in the right
proportions, in an accurate code, from there you could misuse the modeling
processes - deletions, generalizations, and distortions- to come up with
false conclusions.

 

It's not easy to be a human trying to get the facts and work with them
adequately to create precise mapping!  No wonder so many people fail at it.
No wonder people get caught up in cognitive fallacies and distortions that
make their lives a living hell.  They have not learned how to think and
reason to both get the facts and reason from them.  Ideally, that's what
school should teach- thinking skills, critical thinking skills, creative
thinking skills, accurate reasoning skills, etc.

 

To the extent your reasoning is contaminated by cognitive biases, fallacies,
and distortions, to that extent your conclusions wll be wrong, untrue, and
disastrous for human life.  Here is an example:

False reasoning: Fact - the percentage of black men in prison is greater
than white men.  Bias reasoning: America is a fully racist country, it is
everywhere.  Therefore: it is because of racism.

 

When we think systemically, we will consider many other facts in the system.
Here's a few:

Economic status of the families

              Absence of a father in the family

              Absence of the importance on education.

              Schools that pass students on without requiring competence.

              Presence of drugs in the community.

                             Presence of gangs and illegal guns.     

                                           Unemployment of young black men.


 

It is fallacious reasoning to draw a single and absolute conclusion from a
single fact.  If we are to answer the question about the large percentage of
black men in prison, we have to gather high quality information, from many
sources, and about many things.  Otherwise, we will drawn an over-simplistic
conclusion that will fail to solve things. 

 

Life is more complex than most people assume.  So not being equipped to
handle the complexity, many over-simplify.  Of course, there's a problem
with that, namley, the original problem does not get solved, it keeps
returning so we have to keep dealing with it.  Factual statements are not
enough.  We need good reasoning as well.  We need clear thinking and
openness to feedback in our search for truth.   Finally, Eric Fromm speaks
to this in this quotation:

"'Facts' are interpretations of events, and the interpretation presupposes
certain concerns which constitute the event's relevance.  The crucial
question is to be aware of what my concern is and hence of what the facts
have to be in order to be relevant.  Am I the man's friend, or a detective,
or simply a man who wants to see the total man in his humanity? ... 

What I want to show is that the one fact from which we start means nothing
without the evaluation of the whole system, which means an analysis of a
process in which we as observers are also included.  Eventually it must be
stated that the very fact of having decided to select certain events as
facts has an effect on ourselves." (Eric Fromm, The Revolution of Hope:
Toward a Humanized Technology, 1968, pp. 55, 56)

 

On the Website:

www.neurosemantics.com/reasoning-about-facts 

 




 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

 

 

132607 NeuroSemantics Executive Learning Front Cover

 

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