Thinking Your Way to Freedom: A Guide to Owning Your Own Practical Reasoning

PART II. PRACTICE

PRACTICE PART II section 1 Learning the Intricacies of Practical Reasoning WHICH IS NECESSARY FOR section 2 Thinking and Writing Your Way to Truth 48 PART II —— PRACTICE It was argued in Part I that autonomy requires that one engage in impartial practical reasoning. For this to be true, obviously, the impartial reasoning must be logically adequate. Logically adequate impartial reasoning requires that one assemble as many potential candidates for truth as possible, that one test the adequacy of the reasoning behind each option—referred to as establishing local sufficiency—and thereafter that one determine the least weak candidate—referred to as establishing global sufficiency. Section 1 of Part II focuses on local sufficiency—i.e., estimating the adequacy of individual arguments. Section 2 of Part II focuses on global sufficiency—i.e., estimating the adequacy of individual arguments relative to other contenders for truth. Clearly, there is a dynamic relationship between these two. For that reason, students are directed to move back and forth between Section 1 and Section 2. However, since Section 2 provides a template for writing any argumentative essay, Section 2 has been written as a self-sufficient unit (with only passing reference to Section 1) so that it can serve as a quick point of reference for future thinking and writing. ...