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Reasoning   /rˈizənɪŋ/   Listen
noun
Reasoning  n.  
1.
The act or process of adducing a reason or reasons; manner of presenting one's reasons.
2.
That which is offered in argument; proofs or reasons when arranged and developed; course of argument. "His reasoning was sufficiently profound."
Synonyms: Argumentation; argument. Reasoning, Argumentation. Few words are more interchanged than these; and yet, technically, there is a difference between them. Reasoning is the broader term, including both deduction and induction. Argumentation denotes simply the former, and descends from the whole to some included part; while reasoning embraces also the latter, and ascends from the parts to a whole. See Induction. Reasoning is occupied with ideas and their relations; argumentation has to do with the forms of logic. A thesis is set down: you attack, I defend it; you insist, I reply; you deny, I prove; you distinguish, I destroy your distinctions; my replies balance or overturn your objections. Such is argumentation. It supposes that there are two sides, and that both agree to the same rules. Reasoning, on the other hand, is often a natural process, by which we form, from the general analogy of nature, or special presumptions in the case, conclusions which have greater or less degrees of force, and which may be strengthened or weakened by subsequent experience.


verb
Reason  v. t.  
1.
To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss; as, I reasoned the matter with my friend. "When they are clearly discovered, well digested, and well reasoned in every part, there is beauty in such a theory."
2.
To support with reasons, as a request. (R.)
3.
To persuade by reasoning or argument; as, to reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan. "Men that will not be reasoned into their senses."
4.
To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons; with down; as, to reason down a passion.
5.
To find by logical processes; to explain or justify by reason or argument; usually with out; as, to reason out the causes of the librations of the moon.


Reason  v. i.  (past & past part. reasoned; pres. part. reasoning)  
1.
To exercise the rational faculty; to deduce inferences from premises; to perform the process of deduction or of induction; to ratiocinate; to reach conclusions by a systematic comparison of facts.
2.
Hence: To carry on a process of deduction or of induction, in order to convince or to confute; to formulate and set forth propositions and the inferences from them; to argue. "Stand still, that I may reason with you, before the Lord, of all the righteous acts of the Lord."
3.
To converse; to compare opinions.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Reasoning" Quotes from Famous Books



... sciences, at least in their earlier stages? Are there not frequently, or always, many phenomena which at first seem inexplicable, but which are gradually accounted for as knowledge increases? If, then, this is no objection in scientific pursuits generally, why should it be so here?" This reasoning would be perfectly valid if Darwinism were regarded simply as a scientific investigation. But it is under consideration now on very different rounds. Whatever Mr. Darwin's own views may be, the theory is brought forward by others, not as a mere interesting ...
— The Story of Creation as told by Theology and by Science • T. S. Ackland
... such reasoning, I made a variety of enquiries between Battersea and Wandsworth, relative to the condition of the poor. I learnt with grief that the payment of day-labourers varies from 2s. 6d. to 1s. 6d. per day, or ...
— A Morning's Walk from London to Kew • Richard Phillips
... It is uncertain, because the subject lies entirely beyond the reach of human experience. It is useless, because our knowledge of this cause being derived entirely from the course of nature, we can never, according to the rules of just reasoning, return back from the cause with any new inference, or making additions to the common and experienced course of nature, establish any principles of conduct and ...
— An Apology for Atheism - Addressed to Religious Investigators of Every Denomination - by One of Its Apostles • Charles Southwell
... never before seen a boat of that kind, made of glass bottles, and that, even allowing that she would float at all, if we struck a rock where should we be? They declared that, tired as they were, they preferred to go on struggling on foot through the forest rather than get drowned. With his peculiar reasoning, Benedicto said that it was bad enough to die of starvation, but to die of starvation and get drowned as well ...
— Across Unknown South America • Arnold Henry Savage Landor
... of the cosmic evolutionary principle at the point where it reaches its highest level. The effort of Nature has always been upwards from the time when only the lowest forms of life peopled the globe, and it has now culminated in the production of a being with a mind capable of abstract reasoning and a brain fitted to be the physical instrument of such a mind. At this stage the all-creating Life-principle reproduces itself in a form capable of recognizing the working of the evolutionary law, and the unity and continuity of purpose running through the whole progression ...
— The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science • Thomas Troward


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