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What conditions must be met to produce serious reasoning?
Problem solving.

Dealing with a problem involves carrying out the following process:
1. Notice the problem.
2. Conduct a serious analysis.
3. Develop a solution, often partial.
4. Implement it.

The conditions for being able to carry out such a process correctly, that is to say produce serious reasoning, are:
1. That the person leading the decision-making process has the necessary skills.
2. That it provides the amount of work required by the complexity of the subject.
3. That it be sincere in its conclusions as opposed to directing them according to a particular interest.
4. That she is not the victim of beliefs which would lead her to bias her conclusions in good faith.

Steps in the problem resolution process

As soon as one of the steps is skipped, the end result is reduced to nothing, even if other steps have been treated very seriously.

Identify the problem

The main difficulties related to noticing the problem are:

1. have the courage to face the problem head on, and above all to take the risk of possibly confronting the social group which wishes to maintain the current functioning, that is to say remaining in denial,

2. to go back to the origin of the problem, and not be satisfied with the observation of more visible negative consequences.

Conduct an analysis

The main difficulties linked to the analysis are:

1. produce an exhaustive analysis of the situation, and not just follow certain preferred avenues,

2. use reasoning consistent with logic, and based on knowledge established in accordance with the scientific method, and not on personal beliefs or collective dogmas.

Develop a solution

Often the solution is only partial. This should not be an excuse to give up.
Beware of the temptation to discard good practices.

Implement it

This requires having the courage to eventually face the group social which wishes to maintain the current functioning.

The conditions for being able to produce serious reasoning

It is the fourth question 'not being the victim of beliefs leading to biased conclusions in good faith' which is the most difficult to satisfy. The 'in good faith' is the product of cognitive dissonance. To deal with this, the book From capital to reason introduit la notion de cotation stratégique.

The bypasses

To avoid having to make the cognitive effort of reasoning, and making arbitrary decisions, there are different strategies:

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The statutory decision. It consists of basing the validity of the solution on the status of the person who takes it (parent, teacher, hierarchical superior), and not on the quality of the analysis that leads to it.

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The normative or dogmatic decision. It consists of basing the validity of the solution on the fact that it is the rule, the law, the norm, the standard procedure, the state of the art. See the question 'What do good practices represent in the world of work?'

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L'écoute empathique. Elle consiste à créer un climat de confiance qui cache et compense l'arbitraire de la solution. Voir la question 'Le mythe de l'écoute'.

The dogma

L'autre grande technique de contournement consiste à passer à saute mouton par dessus l'analyse. Pour cela, on utilise un dogme religieux ou l'état de l'art au niveau professionnel, pour passer directement de la constatation du problème à la solution.

Go deeper

Une version plus avancée de la méthode de résolution de problèmes, qui tient compte des différentes structures de personnalités est proposée à la question 'Tell me how you make decisions, I'll tell you who you are'

Voir la question 'Pourquoi les humains raisonnent-ils massivement faux ?' qui détaille les défauts méthodologiques du raisonnement humain.

Refer to question 'What do good practices represent in the world of work?' to fully understand how good practices are often an obstacle to the production of serious reasoning.

Its referred to the question 'The myth of listening and good atmosphere' to fully understand how empathy can be misused.

For a more detailed description of the difficulty in conducting serious reasoning, refer to Chapter 4'The decision-making process, or the reign of the irrational' from the book From capital to reason.

For a more detailed explanation of the concept of strategic listing, refer to chapters 7'Going beyond the philosophical vision of the Enlightenment', 10 'The journal of strategic reflections' and 11 'Operational control'.

Last but not least, for a more detailed description of applying the problem-solving method in a group of people, refer to Chapter 9'The problem log' from the book From capital to reason.

Possibly explore on the Internet the concept 'Behavior Scale' which details the upstream process of dealing with problems, i.e. makes an inventory of avoidance techniques so as not to notice the problem (ignore, deny, accuse, justify oneself) , then resumes the processing steps (analyze, imagine) while forgetting the last one (implement).

 

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