How well do you know the basic rules of logic? How often do you break them? Can you tell when others use flawed thinking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Steven Pinker argues that people often act irrationally even when they think they\u2019re not. He examines how you can be more rational and make better decisions<\/a> by improving your critical thinking skills and by understanding\u2014and thus avoiding\u2014the logical fallacies that people often fall victim to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Continue reading for Pinker’s explanation of formal and informal fallacies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Pinker writes that one of the main reasons people think irrationally is that they use logic and critical thinking incorrectly<\/strong>. Critical thinking (also known as deductive reasoning) is the ability to accurately assess logic\u2014to judge whether a conclusion is true based on its premises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Shortform note: In Blink<\/em><\/a>, Malcolm Gladwell differentiates between two systems of thought that we use to arrive at decisions: conscious and unconscious. Our conscious minds think critically and weigh logical arguments, and our unconscious minds produce snap judgments<\/a> that we sometimes can\u2019t fully explain. While Pinker argues that deductive reasoning, which comes from our conscious mind, is the superior method of decision-making<\/a>, Gladwell contends that our snap judgments can often produce better decisions because our subconscious brains are remarkably effective at sorting through and ignoring irrelevant information\u2014details that can trip us up when we try to consider all possible premises logically when arriving at a conclusion.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n People often misinterpret logic and thus engage in fallacious arguments that lead to irrational conclusions. Pinker outlines two kinds of fallacies<\/a> that people tend to succumb to: formal and informal fallacies. In formal fallacies, the conclusion is wrong. In informal fallacies, the premises are wrong. Let’s take a look at each kind in more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFormal and Informal Fallacies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Formal Fallacies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n