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Putting Context Dependent Human Logical Reasoning into the Right Context

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Modeling and Using Context (CONTEXT 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 10257))

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Abstract

Human logical reasoning has been investigated since the very beginning on erroneous conceptual foundations and in a biased and unsystematic way. With the appropriate approach and with more systematic research, we obtain a fundamentally different picture from that propagated by the literature. It becomes clear that human logical reasoning is not a victim of heuristics, biases, and other distorting effects, but is compatible with logic; what is more, it even becomes clear that this couldn’t be otherwise. With the correct interpretation of context and logical necessity many very confusing problems can be approached in a radically new, very simple way. Since the approach presented in this paper is in conflict with an interdisciplinary field that has developed over the course of more than a hundred years, the argument represents a fight that is reminiscent of David and Goliath. My only hope is that common sense can serve as the sling.

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Acknowledgements

A longer treatment of this work, for instance the experimental results mentioned in this paper, a detailed characterization of the literature of psychology of reasoning, including the current “probabilistic turn”, and further arguments in support of the key observations of this paper can be found in the book Everyday Abstract Conditional Reasoning: in light of a 2,400 Year-Old Mistake in Logic [5]. The key observations of this paper with different emphases and accompanying arguments have also been submitted for evaluation to the CogSci 2017 conference. I am grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and to Nicole Standen-Mills for polishing up the language of this paper.

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  1. Pellea Human Research and Development Ltd., Kecskemét, Hungary

    András Veszelka

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  1. András Veszelka
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Correspondence to András Veszelka .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pierre and Marie Curie University , Paris, France

    Patrick Brézillon

  2. University of Maine , Orono, Maine, USA

    Roy Turner

  3. University of Genoa , Genoa, Italy

    Carlo Penco

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Veszelka, A. (2017). Putting Context Dependent Human Logical Reasoning into the Right Context. In: Brézillon, P., Turner, R., Penco, C. (eds) Modeling and Using Context. CONTEXT 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10257. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57837-8_50

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57837-8_50

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57836-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57837-8

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