How We Reason

by Philip N. Johnson-Laird

Good reasoning can lead to success; bad reasoning can lead to catastrophe. Yet, it's not obvious how we reason, and why we make mistakes. This new book by one of the pioneers of the field, Philip Johnson-Laird, looks at the mental processes that underlie our reasoning. It provides the most accessible account yet of the science of reasoning.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Neuroscience, Science

573 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Philip N. Johnson-Laird is a professor at Princeton University's Department of Psychology and author of several notable books on human cognition and the psychology of reasoning.

Reviews

[TjeerdFokkens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very nice in that it contains many examples about reasoning both in the lab and in practice. The writing is good and lively and keeps the reader interested in the argument. A major -- and quite fundamental -- drawback, however, is that the theory of mental models is not well-defined; a problem which is common in the literature. This makes it difficult to see what the theory actually predicts. Instead, the book applies the vaguely formulated idea of mental models all too easily to a wide range of experiments, in hindsight. This is such a shame, as the theory, unless well-defined, could have the potential to explain the phenomena much more rigorously.
The conclusion is, in my opinion, that the theory of mental models needs to be formalised and then actively attempted to be falsified, after which a new book on the subject could be written.