Искусство правильно мыслить | Александр Ивин

🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

Nice intro to [[Argumentation Theory]]

🎨 Impressions

The most interesting chapters are: 7,10 and 12

How I Discovered It

[[Максим Дорофеев]] sent the book during one of our research interaction on the topic of logic and joint preparation to [[Logical thinking tools in Jedi]]

Who Should Read It?

☘️ How the Book Changed Me

How my life / behaviour / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.

✍️ My Top 3 Quotes

📒 Ideas

About premises

Valid premises do not guarantee the validity of the whole argument. [[Critical thinking#^0e9d67]]
- They only increase chances for the validity of the argument.
- The more unexpected consequences a proved to be true, the stronger argument they provide for the topic of the argument.

Proof of conditions

Situations where proving is in not appliable must be avoided.
- Thought sometime they cannot be proved only at the current level of technology or knowledge.
- It doesn’t mean that they won’t be proved sometime in the future.
Theoretical validation could be done by applying the theory to the wide range of objects.
- Ok, we say that PKM is great, by whose standards?
- If so, then PKM great not only in personal context but in wide range of domains.
  - Education.
  - Business.
  - Science.
  - What else?
- Proving validity of an initial statement in other domains, we can substantially increase the significance of a new theory or idea.
An isolated theory or approach stand out as something exceptional rather than innovative and worth trying.

Simplicity rule

No need for too complex explanation and theoretical justification.
- The simpler, the better. [[Critical thinking#Occam’s razor principle]]
- New condition must be aligned with existing condition, that has been proved scientifically
  - Though it is preferably, but not compulsory.
The same could be said about our [[Logical thinking tools in Jedi]], the simpler, the better.
- The same with because part of logical reasoning we are teaching.

Practical knowledge

Or the knowledge of a man who practices what he preaches, is seen differently.
- It’s a special type of knowledge, self-sufficient.
- It’s aimed at a specific situation and requires attention to the context and condition in all it’s numerous variations.
- Life is built not from theoretical knowledge, but from a devised solution, applied to a specific problem, that has arisen under certain conditions in a unique context.
  - Tinkering VS Theoretical knowledge.
  - [[Antifragile books 4 and 5#^b5d025]]
- Practical knowledge is a permanent correction of beliefs to new conditions.
  - It is an adaptability work of truly new principles.

Habituality rule

Stick to the old guns.
- Avoid innovation where it could be avoided.
- But not all innovation, only unsupported ones.
- The ideal object in logical thinking, we should explain the phenomenon with existing tools and not invent new ones.
  - Although, invention absolutely justified if there is no other way around the problem.
  - [[a tool for conflict resolution Evaporating cloud]] is in a sense the same.
  - Bryzgalova said exactly this when she was looking at my EC
    - Evaporating Cloud Rustam
  - The best solution is the one where we don’t need to resolve the conflict.
  - Conflict is avoided with different approach to the problem.

[!NOTE] Explanation and Understanding

To explain something is to infer from existing truths.

To understand something is to infer from accepted evaluations.

What does it mean to explain

To align something with already existing.
- Theory to the rule, it can use as a basis for further inquiries.
- But in that case, what could be said about things that so innovative that have to create a set of rules for them?
- I can agree that it happens quite rarely, but nonetheless it might happen.
Ok, if we step aside from rules, theories, and science and dive into the domain of ordinary life.
- What happens on the level of in-between human interactions.
- Or on the level of self explanation.
- Like we do in our course [[Logical thinking tools in Jedi]]
- At the core, through question if…, then…, in order to do …, we must…, I want this… because.
- And next sequence questions: because, and what else, and how else. We are looking for an explanation.
- The depth of explanation correlates with the depth and complexity of the theory, rule, and problem.
- [[Critical thinking#The core of good explanation]]
Lots of great ideas are covered by Deustsch in [[The Fabric of Reality — David Deutsch]]
To explain something is to infer from existing truths.

Understanding is not what it is

But what it has to be.
- When we explain some phenomenon, even to ourselves, usually we are describing the things the way they are, instead of looking in a different direction.
- As some said, look not the way the arrow points.
  - [[The Fabric of Reality — David Deutsch#Solidness demands understanding]]
  - Feynman also wrote a lot about understanding [[Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman Adventures of a Curious Character]] look there through search of the word understand
- Understanding is the process of matching certain phenomenon or theory or a problem to an explanation.
  - Common caveat is that we tend to fall to description, but it’s not understanding.
- Understanding happens when, through what it is, we know what it must be.
There are two types of understanding.
- Strong.
  - Deductive inference. Where one of the premises is:
    - A common evaluation: Tragedy must invoke a catharsis.
    - Another one is a statement about initial condition: Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” is a tragedy.
    - In a conclusion common evaluation spread over a special case, thus reaching an understanding why certain object must have certain qualities.
- Weak.
  - Plausible inference.
    - The first premise speaks about means that are needed to get a result: If we start a fire in the hearth of the house, then it will be warm.
    - The second premise is an opinion statement, that presents the result as a goal and in the process changing cause and effect into goal – mean: A home must be warm.
    - In a conclusion, this type of understanding describes the action which is required to achieve the goal.
    - Weak understanding is a goal-oriented understanding.
      - Goal-oriented understanding presents in details connection between goals, values, and actions.
      - In this case, to know a person is to know the goal the hoped to achieve through specific action he has taken.
- Beware of weak understanding because it doesn’t have long-standing resilience to changing conditions and different environments.
  - Common mistake in habits verbalization is the same, we tend to set a goal, which is good in a short run, but bad for lifelong habits.
    - [[Atomic Habits#System oriented habits]]
  - The same could be stated for a goal in [[Logical thinking tools in Jedi]], it mustn’t be a weak understanding, but to be fulfilled it has to be a strong one.
To understand something is to infer from accepted evaluations.
There are three layers of understanding.
- Understanding actions of human being (agent of change), the origin of his behaviour.
- Understanding of nature.
- Understanding of language representation, plain text.

Theory of Argumentation

Logical next step logical thinking has made in the course of it’s evolution.
- I think that it is what we really are looking with Maxim for our [[Logical thinking tools in Jedi]]
- According to Ivin the argumentation theory is the key to the problem of justification the reasoning behind the logic. [[Argumentation Theory]]
  - It’s not in a sense appliable logic because it speaks about things that are not directly related to logic.
  - I think it speaks primarily about linguistics.
To understand the source, read Aristotle’s “Rhetoric”
- [[How to speak How to listen#^cad737]]

Argumentation theory based on smart inquiries

The same approach used by Socrates, through question he had been seeking truth.
- It is also a groundwork of problem-based learning
- [[Проблемное обучение]]
- [[How to Think Like a Roman Emperor — Donald J Robertson#The major question of a man]]

📚Related Books

[[Искусство правильно мыслить — А Ивин.canvas]]