LOGICA DOCENS AND LOGICA UTENS

The king turned pale, and shut his note-book hastily. "Consider your
verdict," he said to the jury in a low trembling voice.
"There's more evidence to come yet, please your Majesty," said the
White Rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry: "this paper has just been
picked up."
"What is in it?" said the Queen.
"I haven't opened it yet," said the White Rabbit: "in fact, there's nothing
written on the outside." He unfolded the paper as he spoke, and added
"It isn't a letter, after all: it's a set of verses."
"Are they in the prisoner's handwriting?" asked another of the jurymen.
"No, they're not," said the White Rabbit, "and that's the queerest thing
about it." (The jury all looked puzzled.)
He must have imitated somebody else's hand," said the King. (The jury
all brightened up again.)
"Please your Majesty," said the Knave. "I didn't write it, and they can't
prove that I did: there's no name signed at the end."
"If you didn't sign it," said the King, "that only makes the matter worse.
You must have meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed your
name like an honest man."
There was a general clapping of hands at this: it was the first really
clever thing that the King had said that day
from Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
The King's inferences are somewhat loopy--to say the least. The King has
based these inferences upon a set of assumptions about the way that he
already believes that matters should turn out in this case. The King
began the trial with a clear idea that the Knave is guilty of something--so
he explained away every fact to validate his pre-existing belief. Though
we are none of us as loopy as the King, we all enter situations with
expectations for matters to be, or to proceed, in certain ways. One big
difference among individuals is how someone deals with a situation that

does not meet prior expectations. Many people are like the King. They
adjust whatever data comes along to match their prior expectations--by
selecting in what seems to fit their preconceived belief and excluding or
explaining away what does not. Sometimes, however, it is not possible
to exclude or explain away data. Sometimes we find ourselves sliding
down a rabbit-hole and we have to figure out how to make sense of
things all over again. The way we make sense of things is by making
inferences in whatever way we are most inclined to infer. The term
"logica docens" refers to the formation and application of inferences that
a person has learned to make by means of training and practice. The
term "logica utens" means "logic in use," and refers to the instinctive
habits of mind by which we make most of the inferences of our daily
lives. Logica docens provides the norms (standards) by which reasoning
should be done during a particular phase of reasoning. Logica utens
refers to the way that reasoning is instinctively performed, regardless of
what is best for a reasoning phase....