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 reasoning difficulties of students.  In view of the fact that reasoning starts out with a problem, you see at once that to make your study effective you must study in problems.  Avoid an habitual attitude of mere acquisition.  Do not memorize facts in the same pattern as they are handed out to you.  In history, in general literature, in science, do not read facts merely as they come in the text, but seek the relations between them.  Voluntarily set before yourself intellectual problems.  Ask yourself, why is this so?  In other words, in your study do not merely acquire, but also construct.  The former makes use mostly of memory and though your memorizing be done ever so conscientiously, if it comprise the main part of your study, you fail to utilize your mind to its fullest extent.

Let us now consider the second stage of the reasoning process as found in study.  At this stage the facts in the mind are brought forward for the purpose of being fitted into the present situation, and the essential thing is that you have a large number of facts at your disposal.  If you are going to reason effectively about problems in history, mathematics, geography, it is absolutely indispensable that you know many facts about the subjects.  One reason why you experience difficulty in reasoning about certain subjects is that you do not know enough about them.  Particularly is this true in such subjects as political economy, sociology and psychology.  The results of such ignorance are often demonstrated in political and social movements.  Why do the masses so easily fall victims to doubtful reforms in national and municipal policies?  Because they do not know enough about these matters to reason intelligently.  Watch ignorant people listening to a demagogue and see what unreasonable things they accept.  The speaker