Thinking and Decision Making - Term Paper Example

Generally, the reasoning put emphasis on the intellectual aspect of thinking. In addition, reasoning using ideas and meanings enables people to come to conclusions in the form of decisions. In thinking, analyzing the ideas and meanings in different ways involves elements of thought, generating reasoning, and leading to conclusion. The elements of thought include purpose, problem, conclusions, facts, assumptions, concepts, implications, and point of view (Paul & Elder, 2006). People think differently with some thinking systematically being referred to as analytical thinkers, whereas others think intuitively.

Generally, people think with either the right or left hemisphere of brain dominance, though scholars encourage use of both hemispheres. According to Marquis & Huston (2008), people with the upper-left- brain dominance are analytical thinkers who like to work with factual data and numbers solving problems in a logical and rational way, while people with the lower-left-brain dominance are very organized and detail oriented, and like to work in a stable environment, value safety and security over risking. (p. 16) Based on the brain dominance, four different thinking styles exist, but this paper will discuss only three.

Logical Thinking Thinking logically and selecting reasoning fallacies from one’s thinking and other’s thinking is the basis of critical thinking. . Deductive reasoning involves use of syllogism, which is a three-step form of reasoning with two premises and a conclusion. There are three classes of syllogisms: the categorical, the hypothetical, and the disjunctive syllogisms. Categorical Syllogisms A categorical syllogism is an argument that involves statements that either affirm or deny that a subject is a member of a certain class or has certain property (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, Pg.157). An example of categorical syllogism is as follows: MAJOR PREMISE—All our teachers are tall MINOR PREMISE—Tom is one of our teachers CONCLUSION—Tom is tall.

Tall is the predicate in this case because it is the property or class given to the subject found in premise and conclusion. Indeed, syllogisms are valid when the argument from premises to conclusion is accurate. Hypothetical Syllogisms A pure hypothetical syllogism is one in which the two premises, and the conclusion are hypothetical or conditional, and they normally take the form “if-then statements” (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, P.184). Disjunctive Syllogisms This is the kind of syllogism that involves use of “either” or “or” statements.

Reasoning error of affirming a nonexclusive disjunct using “or” in a nonexclusive manner sometimes involves disjunctive syllogism. Inductive thinking normally “begins with a set of evidence or observations about some members of a class, or about some events” (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, P.197). Based on the evidence or observations, one makes a conclusion regarding other members of the class or about some events. The conclusion of inductive reasoning is normally highly probable, as they do not follow the observations with certainty.

Scientific thinking Scientific thinking involves a structured way of reasoning