Everybody knows how much of a good
reasoner Sherlock Holmes was. He knew that to be a good reasoner you
would have to take away all opinions and assumptions out of reasoning
and base everything on fact. Which is in fact what most people do not
do. When he said that, “when it comes to the art of reasoning, many
people rely on opinion and unsupported assumptions” he meant what I
said earlier that you cannot bring in opinions and assumptions when
you are trying to reason with someone. Take in all the facts and
distinguish them from the opinions. One example in my life that I
have had was when I was at my work with a coworker working together
on a project. While I was working hard on the project my worker
disappeared and left me. I did not know that my coworker left and I
assumed that he had left me for me to do the project on my own. I tried to
reason with myself, but could only think of how mad I was that my
coworker left me and I thought he was lazy for doing that. Little did
I know though that my coworker left to bring support and had actually helped
me do the project without my knowledge. So I learned that until I get my
facts straight I need not to use opinions or assumptions when
reasoning.
I think that, despite how easy Sir Arthur Conan Doyle makes it look in his books, it’s difficult for most people to be reasonable. I can definitely relate to how you jumped to conclusion when your coworker left. I know how hard it is to think clearly when you are upset about something. I remember looking back on some of the arguments I’ve had with people and feeling horrible about some of the things I said to them. I only end up feeling worse when I realized that what had made me so angry was nothing more than a simple misunderstanding.
ReplyDelete