That’s the title the editor gave to a letter I had published in the Education Age (21 May 07), commenting on an opinion piece by my University of Melbourne colleague Marty Ross. Since they don’t make the letters to Education Age available online, I’m putting it up here. Marty’s piece generally was very good. He [...]
Archive for the ‘Reasoning’ Category
Want Logic? Teach Logic
Posted in Education, Reasoning, Teaching on May 23, 2007 | 3 Comments »
How long does it take to map an argument?
Posted in Argument Mapping, Austhink, Reasoning, Research on May 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
At a number of universities around the world, people are now setting up studies to help determine the extent to which argument maps, or Rationale use, can help build skills or improve performance on difficult tasks. One such person asked in an email: “What is the average time for an adult learner to complete the [...]
"One especially ambitious new offering…"
Posted in Austhink, Cognition, Intelligence Augmentation, Rationale, Reasoning on May 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The eminent journalist and author James Fallows writes an influential technology column, and in the latest one has discussed Rationale, in the context of software tools to help people “develop, refine, and express ideas”. I didn’t realise it upon first reading, but buried in the article is an account of the various kinds and levels [...]
Rationale: Making People Smarter
Posted in Argument Mapping, Intelligence Augmentation, Rationale, Reasoning on May 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Last weekend I finally managed to finish off the paper, chunks of which were appearing in previous posts. It is being submitted for possible inclusion in a special issue of the journal Law, Probability and Risk, which will include papers coming out of the Graphic and Visual Representations of Evidence and Inference in Legal Settings [...]
Rationale – Why does it work? – Complementation
Posted in Argument Mapping, Intelligence Augmentation, Rationale, Reasoning on May 2, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Another installment of the in-progress paper. Draft only. Comments welcome 3.2 Complementation A second theme in understanding how a tool such as Rationale can make us smarter is complementation: the tool complements our minds’ natural strengths and weaknesses. Our reasoning abilities are a function of our basic cognitive capacities, which depend in turn on our [...]
Rationale – Why does it work? – Usability
Posted in Argument Mapping, Intelligence Augmentation, Rationale, Reasoning, Research on April 30, 2007 | 2 Comments »
As mentioned a few posts ago, I’ve been resisting the temptation to write in this space, due to an academic paper demanding completion. The paper is about Rationale, for a legal journal; here is the “table of contents”: Rationale: A Generic Argument Mapping Tool Introduction 1. Rationale Overview 2. Making Humans Smarter. 2.1 Educational 2.2 [...]
"No agony, just ecstasy"
Posted in Argument Mapping, Rationale, Reasoning on April 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
A warm review of Rationale. Some particularly interesting quotes: “mapping out my arguments in geekish detail isn’t so much about control freakery, it’s more about providing the foundation for the spontaneity needed for playing around, for creative thinking.” “As I move reasons and objections around, I make major changes to the argument. Or, rather, I [...]
Support is transitive?
Posted in Argument, Argument Mapping, Critical Thinking, Reasoning on March 18, 2007 | 1 Comment »
On the news tonight there was coverage of protests in Washington against the Iraq war. There was a soundbite of an Iraq veteran saying “You can’t support the troops and oppose the war, because the troops support the war.” These thoughts flashed through my mind in quick succession: Argument. Argument, very concisely expressed. Bad argument. [...]
Wise vs Smart
Posted in Decision Making, Philosophy, Reasoning, Software Startup on February 28, 2007 | 6 Comments »
Paul Graham has an interesting post, Is It Worth Being Wise?, where he addresses what wisdom is, and how it differs from (“merely”) being smart or intelligent. He dismisses two supposedly-popular accounts: wisdom applies to human problems, and intelligence to abstract ones wisdom comes from experience, while intelligence is innate. He suggests an alternative: “wise” [...]
Benefits for lawyers
Posted in Argument Mapping, Reasoning on February 28, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Why should lawyers, in their high-pressure, time-is-money line of work, bother to map arguments? Yesterday Jane Lewis and I presented to a large Australian firm in their “Continuing Legal Education” series. There were about 100 or so lawyers from across the various practice areas. The session was introduced by the partner who has been most [...]
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