The Nature of Logic and Perception
Perception is something we do constantly and of which we are often unaware. It is the way we see and understand our environment. Whether stopping at a red light, laughing at a joke, or writing a paper, perception is at work. The paper examines aspects of perception, its relationship to logic, barriers to accurate perception, and the consequences of misperception.
Logic and critical thinking are intertwined, even interdependent. Critical thinking is the analytical process of evaluating data, and logic is the vehicle for reaching conclusions. Critical thinking provides the ability to question, see through preconceived notions, and understand meaning. Logic depends upon critical thought to examine the veracity of premises, just as critical thought depends on logic to make a judgment. The relationship between premises is the called the argument, and justification of the argument is called validity. Hence, a valid argument with an accurate conclusion is derived from a sequence of premises that are evaluated by critical thought and related logically. The effectiveness of logic and critical thinking is highly dependent
upon perception.
The perceptual process is how people gather external data then react to the data. The process has five parts: observation, selection, organization, interpretation and response. Observation is the act of sensory stimulation in the form of sight, sound, taste, touch, and feel. This can be seeing a person's face, hearing snow crunch under footsteps, or just feeling a texture. The next step is selection, where the observer decides whether or not to pay attention to the environmental stimulus. For example, one observer may select the sound of footsteps in snow while another ...