From Data to Reasoning

Data appear at the beginning and at the end of any reasonable modeling. Indeed, data deliver a motivation and a starting point for a model construction. But data are also necessary to validate a resulting model. Data bring information on a considered phenomenon. Gathering information enables to widen our knowledge. But, on the other hand, without some knowledge one would not be able to extract information from data and interpret the received information adequately. Such terms like data and information are widely used in the context of scientific modeling and applications. Although sometimes treated interchangeably they are not synonyms. Another closely related concepts are knowledge, uncertainty, reasoning, etc. The main goal of the present chapter is to discuss and clarify the meaning of the aforementioned notions, to indicate their interrelations and set them in the broad framework of the cognition oriented activity. Finally, three basic types of reasoning used both in science as well as in practice is briefly characterized.