Logical Methods and Rules of Reasoning in Descartes: Antidotes to Bias in Judgement

Abstract

Poverty of critical reasoning is one of the responsible factors for biased judgment and lots of related problems in the society. When reasoning is beclouded and hijacked by bias and prejudice then the inescapable effects include; discrimination, bigotry, chauvinism/feminism, violence, injustice, corruption in politics, religion and culture, etc. Thus, the aim of this paper is to defend methods and rules of reasoning in Descartes as necessary tools against bias in judgment. To deal decisively with this aim as stated, analytic method of research is applied to unveil Descartes's rules of reasoning and to interpret these rules as necessary conditions for unbiased judgment. This study centers on the works of Descartes to expose his stand on foundations of knowledge in the cogito ego sum, 21 rules of reasoning which are summarized as; accept nothing as true that is not self-evident, divide problems into their simplest parts, solve problems by proceeding from simple to complex (logical consistency), recheck reasoning by enumeration. From the study, it is obvious that Descartes' rules of reasoning are sufficient conditions for unbiased judgment. Therefore, the implication of this study is that a good application of these rules of reasoning in Descartes is preventive of bias in judgment.