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Logic, Imagination and Deduction Essay

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Logic, Imagination and Deduction

"Quit your day dreaming"

"Mr. Gies, are you still with us?"

"Hello!"

These are some of the common inquisitions I heard while trying my best to pay attention during elementary school classes. It seems that I had some issues with staying on task. Perhaps it was a problem that I would outgrow, or at least be able to control, but as the years went on by I found that time did not change me. What a break! It turns out that using my imagination has helped me numerous times in solving networking issues, writing code, troubleshooting electronic devices, and designing complex systems. So are critical thinking, logic and deduction, and problem solving learned skills? Or are they simply tied to ones …show more content…

Hoffmann states in his essay "The Chemist" that "One has to imagine, to conjure up a model that fits often irregular observations" (Hoffmann 470). So when the norm does not work, when the formulas don’t apply, even the "left brained" scientists need to think "Out side the box".

Imagination becomes the key to solving the complex problems. Bronowski could not have stated it any clearer when he said, "To imagine means to make images and to move them about inside one’s head in new arrangements" (Bronowski 463). Is this not what logical reasoning and deduction is all about? Logic can be described as having the ability to imagine multiple scenarios and solutions and pick the most appropriate for any given circumstance.

The question is, how do we get this ability? Is the ability to imagine a skill that is learned through life and situations, or is it a matter of genetics? A naïve perspective on genetics would say that something is missing if an individual possesses sub-par deduction abilities; however, according to Ridley "We have been misled into thinking that genetics is all about disorders…"(Ridley 473). The fact in truth may be, the ability to reason and imagine may be determined by the presence of a certain type of gene or a particular combination of genes. Personally I would like to think that we are not locked into some predetermined category. Skills of logic and deduction

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