you reach a conclusion without having to use or at any rate to imply a
_therefore_, you may take it for granted that you have not been really
thinking, but only jumping to conclusions."

This process of putting facts in the form of judgments and drawing
inferences, may be likened to a court-room scene where arguments are
presented to the judge. As each bit of evidence is submitted, it is
subjected to the test of its applicability to the situation or to
similar situations in the past. It is rigidly examined and nothing is
accepted as a candidate for the solution until it is found by trial (of
course, in imagination) to be pertinent to the situation.

The third stage of the reasoning process comes when some plan which has
been suggested as a possible solution of the difficulty proves
effective, and we make the decision; the arguments support or overthrow
each other, adding to and eliminating various considerations until
finally only one course appears possible. As we said before, the
solution comes inevitably, as represented by the word _therefore_.
Little active work on our part is necessary, for if we have gone
through these other phases properly the decision will make itself. You
cannot make a wrong decision if you have the facts before you and have
given each the proper weight. When the solution comes, it is recognized
as right, for it comes tinged with a feeling that we call belief.

Now that we have found the reasoning process to be one of
problem-solving, of which the first step is to acknowledge and
recognize the difficulty, the second, to call up various methods of
solution, and the third, to decide on the basis of one of the solutions
that comes tinged with certainty, we are ready to apply this schema to
study in the hope that we may discover the causes and remedies for the