ARP:Reaction to Meiland's "Why Reasons Matter"

Satoshi Takizawa
Professor Owen
ARW Section AI
7 May 2007

Reaction toMeiland's "Why Reasons Matter"

Summary

According to Meiland, there are five justifications of the search for good reasons. First, we believe that a thing supported by good reasons is more likely to be true than one that is not supported by good reasons. Second, beliefs based on good reasons help us to avoid frustrations. This means if you have no good reason, you would be shocked and frustrated when you did not get what you want. A third justification is what we might call a “social” justification. This means basing beliefs on good reasons fits together well with our democratic way of life. Fourth, if you have good reasons for your beliefs, then when your belief is challenged, you can defend your belief. And it help us to make clear why we believe. Therefore you are more likely to hold your true beliefs when you know why you ought to hold them. Finally, if you can’t defend their beliefs, we think that you don’t have reasons and understand the material. So you need to investigate reasons and argue for beliefs, and you had to prove them true. Also you will come to understand them better.

Discussion

Meiland takes up five justifications of the search for good reasons in “Why Reasons Matter”― why is it that college work is so concerned with the reasons for our beliefs？ In second justification he takes the example “If you believe capricious things, you would just go ahead and believe it, ignoring all evidence. The trouble is that eventually－and probably sooner rather than later－you will come into frustrating, or even violent, contact with the real world. But basing beliefs on good reasons has been found to aid in avoiding frustrations of this sort.” But I think, in this case that one believes capricious things, he need not have good reasons, because a person can display great power in doing something like sports by believing. For instance, I was poor at standing broad jump when I was junior high school student. My record was not more than tow meters. But I thought that I have power to jump more than 2 meters when I was high school student. And I jumped 2.10meters!! There is a case that a man display more power just to believe having no reason than to collects negative reasons.

Work Cited
Meiland, Jack W. College Thinking: How to Get the Best Out of College. New York: New American Library, 1981. (The ELP Reader, 2006.7-10)