Asking the Right Questions - Chapter 12&13

What Significant Information Is Omitted?

Summary

To judge the quality of reasoning, we must realize that some significant information may be omitted and that deserves our consideration. The failure to look for omitted information would have resulted in our making a premature and potentially erroneous judgment.

Significant omitted information is information that shapes the reasoning. The truth is that incomplete reasoning is inevitable. The limitation imposed by time and space, the span of readers’ limited attention and the inevitability of missing information are all the reasons leading to incomplete argument.

Critical thinkers value curiosity and reasonableness, but communicators often do their best to extinguish that curiosity and try to shape their readers or audiences choice by encouraging them to rely on unreasonable emotional responses.

We can ask questions to identify omitted information but also need to know the range and proportions of possible values.Remember to ask, “What are the potential long-term negative effects of the action?” when considering omitted information, and pay attention to the negative views. 

What Reasonable Conclusions Are Possible?

Having discussed for such a long period of doubt and questions, let’s see how to ensure that the conclusion we eventually adopt is the most reasonable and the most consistent with our value preferences. When people think in black or white, yes or no, right or wrong, or correct or incorrect terms, they engage in dichotomous thinking, in which there are only two possible answers to a question that actually has multiple potential answers. That’s an impediment to considering multiple conclusions because few questions are answered simply by yes or no. Try to read assisted by logical and critical thinking, open our mind and embrace any possibilities in the future.

Among all the alternative conclusions, each optional conclusion is possible on the bases of different information, definitions, assumptions, frame or individual. That indicates using if-clauses is a good idea.

Thought

这一章是本书的最后一章。简略而又详尽地读了一遍这本书，感觉备受启发却也感觉收获不大。文章的中心思想就是质疑，全文如题——“Asking the Right Questions”。 这里的Asking我认为应该理解成现在分词，阅读不息，质疑不止。读什么都要质疑，读每一段都要思疑，每一句都要考虑，那我们到底在读什么？我们还应该相信什么？

我们应该相信自己。首先，相信自己思考能力。思考是人类相比于动物的优势，每个人都应充分利用，不应放弃思考。其次，相信他人犯错的可能。人无完人，孰能无过。带着作者或演讲者可能犯错的观念去读、去听、去寻问题，收效会大得多。最后，相信万物皆有可能。永远带着开放的心态去接受观点，消化新讯息和知识，人类无法牢牢抓住真理，却可以不断缩短和真理的距离。

阅读不是录入，而是输出。带着问题去读书，听着书本的建议，走自己的路。