One\nof the signs of a wise person is when he has a reasonable mind. A person can\nonly have a reasonable mind when he can think in a clear, harmonious way so\nthat there is no contradiction in understanding the information that he\ngathered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since\nreasoning deals with the systematic way of the mind to arrive at knowledge,\nonly information or premises which are properly organised by human reason that\ncan convey proper meanings to a person and can ultimately be called wisdom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nthis age of information explosion, we are being surrounded by huge volume of data\nthat can be easily accessed at the touch of a finger, yet not necessarily\nconveying wisdom to us. American biologist and writer E.O Wilson used to\nsay, \u201cwe are drowning with\ninformation while starving for wisdom.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time\nand again, conflicting information causes dilemma and confusion in one\u2019s\nthinking. Take for example the case of a lay voter who is bombarded by\nconflicting views and informations of various politicians from different\ncompeting political parties especially during election days. Through persuasive\narguments or rhetorics, one issue can be argued as something good by a party\nyet proved as bad by the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although\nit can be argued that human beings are given the intellect to verify what is\ntrue from what is false, yet to the ears of lay men, the conflicting arguments\ncan be so persuasive that they cannot decide which one is true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For\nstudents who are being ideally educated in schools and universities concerning\nknowledge and truth about realities, they will go out to the society only to\nfind out that the reality outside is not as ideal and \u2018true\u2019 as it was\nprojected to them. In many instances, their experiences in facing contradicting\ntruth claims within the society deteriorate the idealism of these young graduates\nin comprehending truth. The truth that they used to believe is now becoming\nmore relative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nsituation will lead to a basic question; can someone attain certain and\nabsolute knowledge about the true reality of things? It is becoming more\ndifficult to answer this question in positive knowing the fact that in a post-truth\nera, objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than\nappeals to emotion and personal belief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While\nthe answer of this question is not easy to find, history and knowledge\ntradition in the past can at least share us some lights over the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scholars\nas early as Greek classical thinkers had identified different kinds of\narguments that will lead to different level of certainty about truth. Aristotle\none of the greatest philosophers the Greek has produced, listed a few kinds of\narguments or proof which are also arranged based on the levels of certainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nhighest one is demonstrative argument which is presented based on empirical\nevidence and strong syllogistic premises. Second, is the dialectical arguments\nmainly used by debaters based on well accepted premises especially by the\nconfronting parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nthird one is rhetorical arguments which are based on persuasive proof. The\nfourth one is poetical arguments which is using metaphors in appealing more to\nthe emotion of human beings. There is also the fifth one which is called\nsophistical arguments which uses false premises to come to a seemingly true\nconclusions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As\nfar as rhetorics is concerned, Aristotle\u2019s teacher, Plato reported that\nrhetorics is commonly used by certain groups to deceit people rather than to\nfind the truth. The classical case is\nhow Socrates, the earlier Greek thinker, was being sentenced to death through\nthe punishment of drinking poisonous beverage of hemlock due to the rhetorics\nof the Sophists in accusing the former as a traitor to Athens and corrupting\nthe mind of the Athenian youth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From\nthe above case, it is clear that true knowledge can still be obtained through\nproper proof and arguments. On the\ncontrary, weak and invalid methods of proof will definitely cause confusion and\ndilemma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only\nthat, the society need to be properly educated on the appropriate way of\nthinking and proper methodology in understanding arguments and proofs. This can\nbe done first, by inculcating proper way of analysis on any peace of\ninformation that we receive. Secondly by having a proper understanding of a\nconcept under scrutiny through proper definition and explanation. Thirdly by\nemploying proper demonstrative logical method in any argument in order to come\nto a valid conclusion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the signs of a wise person is when he has a reasonable mind. A person can only have a reasonable mind when he can think in a clear, harmonious way so that there is no contradiction in understanding the information that he gathered. Since reasoning deals with the systematic way of the mind…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-225","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}