In our daily lives, we often need to make various decisions and solve problems. And these decisions and problem solving need to rely on our cognitive ability and way of thinking. Human beings have a variety of ways of thinking, and one of the most important ways of thinking is "deductive reasoning". If you had mastered this mindset in your early years, perhaps your decision-making and problem-solving skills would have taken it to the next level.
Before we talk about "deductive reasoning", we need to know "inductive reasoning", which is the way of thinking that most of us use most of the time. It is a method of thinking from the individual to the general, by observing and analyzing the characteristics and relationships of individual things or situations, so as to arrive at general laws or conclusions. It makes inferences and generalizations based on our knowledge and understanding of specific situations, as well as our grasp of the relevance of things. The process of "inductive reasoning" mainly includes observation, induction, summarization and generalization. To put it simply, inductive reasoning is the summary of existing phenomena.
For example, if we observe that several cats have 4 legs on their bodies, we can deduce that animals in the cat category roughly have 4 legs;For example, if we observe that two objects fall at a height at the same time under the same conditions in multiple experiments, we can infer that the object will fall due to gravity in the absence of external forces. These are general rules that are derived through inductive reasoning.
The direction of thinking of "deductive reasoning" is just the opposite of "inductive reasoning", which is a way of thinking from the general to the individual, from the general law to the specific situation. It is based on the principles of rigorous logical reasoning and abstract thinking, combining our cognition of objective laws with the specific situations we are facing, so as to derive new conclusions.
In deductive reasoning, we derive general laws by observing and summarizing experience;Then, by applying this law to specific situations, we can derive individual conclusions. This process includes not only the application of "existing knowledge", but also the excavation and application of "tacit knowledge".
We can understand the process of deductive reasoning through a small case. Let's say you're thinking about buying a car. You do this by understanding the characteristics of the automotive market and various models, and conducting extensive research and research. You find that you want a car with the following characteristics: large space, high performance, low fuel consumption and good safety performance. By summarizing these characteristics, you can conclude that the car you want should have the characteristics of large space, high performance, low fuel consumption and good safety performance. Then, you apply this rule to specific models, for example, by understanding a model's parameters and user reviews and other information to determine whether the model meets your requirements. Ultimately, you can conclude through deductive reasoning that a certain brand and model meet your requirements and can be one of your purchase options.
Through the above cases, we can see the importance and value of deductive reasoning. It can help us extract useful knowledge from a bunch of information and data, generalize and summarize;It can help us to clearly grasp the key points of the problem from the general law when facing complex situations;It can help us make informed decisions, solve problems, and work more efficiently.
So, how to develop and improve the ability of deductive reasoning?First, we need to focus on observations and lessons learned. Observation is the beginning of discovering the connections and laws between things, and through observation we can perceive the essence and crux of the problem. At the same time, we need to abstract the general laws from them by inducting and summarizing experience, and record them as our cognitive reserves.
Secondly, we need to exercise logical thinking and abstract thinking. Logical thinking is the foundation of reasoning and thinking, and we need to cultivate our sensitivity to logic and be able to quickly discover and evaluate the rationality of logic. Abstract thinking is the abstraction of our cognition of objective things into symbols or concepts, which can integrate a larger amount of information into more concise and important information, so as to clarify the internal connection between things.
Finally, practice is the key to improving deductive reasoning skills. We need to apply deductive reasoning to practical problems, and test and consolidate our reasoning skills through practice. Through the analysis and solution of actual cases, we will continuously improve our thinking level and cognitive ability.
In the modern society of high-speed information production and flow, in the face of the challenges of "uncertainty" and "complexity", having excellent "deductive reasoning" ability is an excellent core competitiveness. Only through continuous observation, in-depth thinking, summarization and practice can we discover the logical code of thinking, improve our deductive reasoning ability, and make realistic and wise decisions and effective solutions to problems. So, let's start focusing on and developing our deductive reasoning skills so that they can be our right-hand men in decision-making and problem solving.