Claims are constantly being made, many of which are confusing, ambiguous, too general to be of value, exaggerated, unfalsifiable, and suggest a dichotomy when no such dichotomy exists. Good critical thinking requires a thorough understanding of the claim before attempting to determine its veracity. Good communication requires the ability to make clear, precise, explicit claims, or "strong" claims. The rules of reason in this book provide the framework for obtaining this understanding and ability.<br><br>This book is about the the eleven rules of reason for making and evaluating claims. Each covered in detail in the book. These are: <br><br>1) Acknowledge the Limits of Your Knowledge Regarding the Claim.<br>2) Explore Your Biases Related to the Claim.<br>3) Isolate the Actual Claim.<br>4) Clearly and Precisely Define Each Relevant Term.<br>5) Use Terms That Reflect the Scope of the Claim Accurately.<br>6) Operationalize Terms When Possible.<br>7) Make the Claim Falsifiable When Possible.<br>8) Express an Accurate and Meaningful Level of Confidence.<br>9) Convert Causes to Contributing Factors When Appropriate.<br>10) Make Strong Analogies and Call Out Weak Ones.<br>11) Filter All Relevant Assumptions Through These Same Rules.<br><br>The bottom line: the Rules of Reason will help you to become a better thinker and communicator.<br>
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Bo Bennett PhD. Rules of Reason
Preface
Introduction
Know Thyself
Rule #1: Acknowledge the Limits of Your Knowledge Regarding the Claim
Rule #2: Explore Your Biases Related to the Claim
Disambiguate
Rule #3: Isolate the Actual Claim
Rule #4: Clearly and Precisely Define Each Relevant Term
Rule #5: Use Terms That Reflect the Scope and Degree of the Claim Accurately
Rule #6: Operationalize Terms When Possible
Rule #7: Make the Claim Falsifiable When Possible
Rule #8: Express an Accurate and Meaningful Level of Confidence
Embrace the Continuum
Rule #9: Convert Causes to Contributing Factors When Appropriate
Rule #10: Make Strong Analogies and Call Out Weak Ones
Rule #11: Filter All Relevant Assumptions Through These Same Rules
Putting It All Together
Conclusion
The Eleven Rules of Reason for Making and Evaluating Claims
About The Author
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Back in 2012, after several years of being immersed in online debate for far more hours a day than I am proud to admit, I wrote the book, Logically Fallacious, which is like an encyclopedia of logical fallacies that identifies hundreds of common errors in reasoning. Since that time, I have been running the website of the same name where I help people from around the world parse arguments and identify if the arguments contain fallacies or not. What became clear is that identifying errors in reasoning will only get us so far to mastering reason. What is needed to get us all the way there are some rules to doing it right or rules of reason.
These rules of reason are unlike the immutable laws of logic. Laws reflect the way things are, whereas rules are more like guidelines that, when followed, consistently produce the most favorable outcome. Rules can be bent, and some even broken, especially in extenuating circumstances.
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You can have anything you want as long as you want it badly enough!
Through probability alone, some people will get what they want, and some people won’t. Those who get what they want lend support to this claim and those who don’t either just didn’t get it yet since no timeframe was specified or it can be claimed that they simply didn’t want it badly enough, in either case, not taking away from the credibility of the claim. This is what gives staying power to such claims and make unfalsifiable claims prime drivers of pseudoscience, marketing scams, and religions.
