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Narayan 2
One of the most prominent benefits of using reason in various situations is its
certainty in the construction of knowledge, involving the collection of primary data to
predict the future accurately. This is most applicable in the case of inductive and deductive
reasoning which involves making generalisations and inferences based on several
observations, assuming that the premises of both arguments are true. As such, reason
significantly involves generalisation based on a number of samples that provide a similar
outcome, making the conclusion largely reliable.
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Narayan 4
Although the conclusion can be considered true based on the given premises, the
claim does not apply to all reasons owing to the lack of mercury or even the autistic
children who did not have a mercury deficiency in their hair. Here, while the logical
reasoning is sound it is not reflective of the truth. Therefore, the presence of this flaw in
using reason as a way of knowing can be detrimental as it may interfere with the validity of
the knowledge claim. Additionally, the argument is driven by the inductive fallacy of post
hoc ergo propter hoc where the author assumes that since there is a mercury deficiency is
autistics it must be causing the mental disability. This example, indicates the possibility that
reason may be unreliable if and when the premises may not be true with the conclusion
being invalid universally.
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of a theoretical barrier (Bias in Science). Here, in the process of justifying a claim through
deductive reasoning which involves collecting data for proving a hypothesis, human desire
to prove the argument may hinder the reliability of the way of knowing.
An example of such flawed logical thinking is that of the water memories experiment
carried out by a French scientist named Jaques Benveniste on the subject of the effect of
histamine reactions. A histamine is a compound which is released by cells in response to
injury and in allergic and inflammatory reactions. Benenviste, ignored the presence of
data that may refute his hypothesis and concluded that the strength of the reaction
increase as the histamine became diluted (Bias in Science). This improbable conclusion
was soon denouncement based on a separate experiment carried that showed that when
the same experiment was performed with blinding (likely double blind) the positive results
were no longer present.
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Works Cited
Bias in Science: a sample in the life of a working scientist. indiana.edu. Web. 13 March
2016.
March 2016.
Van de Lagemaat, Richard. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge, United
Kingdom. Cambridge