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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



... preparations are made for a defense that may prove troublesome. I therefore intend to send for two of the principal officers of the place, that we may converse with them. Having separated them from their troops and cannon, we shall be better able to deal with them; particularly by reasoning with them. Is not this your ...
— The Man in the Iron Mask • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... May be remark'd of different aspects; If rare or dense of that were cause alone, One single virtue then would be in all, Alike distributed, or more, or less. Different virtues needs must be the fruits Of formal principles, and these, save one, Will by thy reasoning be destroy'd. Beside, If rarity were of that dusk the cause, Which thou inquirest, either in some part That planet must throughout be void, nor fed With its own matter; or, as bodies share Their fat and leanness, in like manner this Must in its volume change the ...
— The Divine Comedy, Complete - The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell • Dante Alighieri
... that it is impossible for the patient not to be hypochondriacally melancholic; or, even if he were not, he must surely become so because of the elegance of the things you have said and the accuracy of your reasoning." We might multiply examples, for all we need do would be to call up Moliere's doctors, one after the other. However far, moreover, comic fancy may seem to go, reality at times undertakes to improve upon ...
— Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic • Henri Bergson
... superiority to us. However, though inexperienced, Mary, you aren't silly or extravagant, and Ralph could safely trust you with his money. It makes a woman so self-respecting, puts her on her mettle, to have money to do as she pleases with, to be trusted, relied upon as a reasoning, responsible being. A man, especially a young husband, makes a grave mistake when he looks upon his wife as only a toy to amuse him in his leisure moments and not as one to be trusted to aid him in his life work. A trusted young housewife, with a reasonable and regular ...
— Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit - among the "Pennsylvania Germans" • Edith M. Thomas
... trying to decide in her own mind whether Mrs. Hazleton's reasoning was right; and that lady, choosing to take her assent for granted, from her silence, hurried away, to give her no ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851 • Various


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