Final answer:
Motivated reasoning is a type of cognitive bias where individuals make judgments based on what they want to believe, rather than objectively considering the evidence. Logic is the tool that helps formalize reasoning processes, although it is essential to have true premises to reach true conclusions in deductive reasoning.
Step-by-step explanation:
Motivated reasoning describes how people actually make judgments. This type of reasoning is indicative of a bias where individuals tend to conclude what they wish to believe, rather than impartially examining evidence. Motivated reasoning often occurs in politics, but it can also affect judgments in other domains. When people engage in motivated reasoning, they first decide what they believe to be true, and then search for evidence that supports this belief while dismissing contrary information.
Logic plays a crucial role in shaping reasoning. Philosophers use logic to formalize the process of providing reasons for claims and assess whether those claims are well-founded or not. Both inductive and deductive reasoning are subject to error, and just because someone has used reasoning to arrive at a belief doesn't mean they reasoned well. Premises must be true for deductive reasoning to lead to true conclusions, and even well-executed inductive reasoning provides only probable conclusions.