Impediments to good reasoning

Ask a friend to explain why they still believe something after you've shown them clear evidence against it, and watch how often the answer is some version of “well, that's just your opinion.” That one sentence can shut down a good argument in three seconds — and it is exactly the kind of habit this topic studies: not tricks inside an argument's structure, but habits of mind that stop us reasoning well at all.

In two minutes

Impediments to good reasoning are not fallacies inside an argument — they are habits and attitudes in the reasoner that stop honest argument analysis from happening in the first place.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Logic – II on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.