Reason
['riːz(ə)n] or [ˈrizən]
Definition
(noun.) the capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination; 'we are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil'.
(noun.) a fact that logically justifies some premise or conclusion; 'there is reason to believe he is lying'.
(noun.) an explanation of the cause of some phenomenon; 'the reason a steady state was never reached was that the back pressure built up too slowly'.
(noun.) a rational motive for a belief or action; 'the reason that war was declared'; 'the grounds for their declaration'.
(verb.) think logically; 'The children must learn to reason'.
(verb.) decide by reasoning; draw or come to a conclusion; 'We reasoned that it was cheaper to rent than to buy a house'.
Typed by Audrey--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; a just ground for a conclusion or an action; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation; the efficient cause of an occurrence or a phenomenon; a motive for an action or a determination; proof, more or less decisive, for an opinion or a conclusion; principle; efficient cause; final cause; ground of argument.
(n.) The faculty or capacity of the human mind by which it is distinguished from the intelligence of the inferior animals; the higher as distinguished from the lower cognitive faculties, sense, imagination, and memory, and in contrast to the feelings and desires. Reason comprises conception, judgment, reasoning, and the intuitional faculty. Specifically, it is the intuitional faculty, or the faculty of first truths, as distinguished from the understanding, which is called the discursive or ratiocinative faculty.
(n.) Due exercise of the reasoning faculty; accordance with, or that which is accordant with and ratified by, the mind rightly exercised; right intellectual judgment; clear and fair deductions from true principles; that which is dictated or supported by the common sense of mankind; right conduct; right; propriety; justice.
(n.) Ratio; proportion.
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) To converse; to compare opinions.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) To support with reasons, as a request.
(v. t.) To persuade by reasoning or argument; as, to reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan.
(v. t.) To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons; -- with down; as, to reason down a passion.
(v. t.) 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.
Editor: Rosalie
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Intellect, mind, sense, understanding, rational faculty, thinking principle, intellectual powers or faculties, discursive power or faculty.[2]. Cause, ground, principle, motive, consideration, account, efficient cause.[3]. Design, purpose, end, object, aim, final cause.[4]. Argument, reasoning, chain of reasoning, process of reasoning.[5]. Reasonableness, wisdom, common sense, good sense, right or just view.[6]. Theory, exposition, rationale.
v. n. [1]. Draw conclusions, draw inferences, make deductions.[2]. Argue, debate, dispute, chop logic, try conclusions, bandy words or arguments, hold or carry on an argument.
Edited by Joanne
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Debate, discuss, argue, infer, deduce, conclude,[See ARGUE]
SYN:Ground, account, cause, explanation, motive, proof, apology, understanding,reasoning, rationality, right, propriety, justice, order, object, sake,purpose
ANT:Pretext, pretence, misinterpretation, falsification, misconception, disproof,unreasonableness, absurdity, fallacy, irrationality, wrong, unreason,impropriety, unfairness, folly, aimlessness, unaccountableness
Typed by Blanche
Definition
n. an idea which supports or justifies an act or belief: a motive: proof: excuse: cause: an explanation: the faculty of the mind by which man draws conclusions and determines right and truth: the exercise of reason: just view of things: right conduct: propriety: justice: that which is conformable to reason: (logic) a premise placed after its conclusion.—v.i. to exercise the faculty of reason: to deduce inferences from premises: to argue: to debate: (B.) to converse.—v.t. to examine or discuss: to debate: to persuade by reasoning.—adj. Rea′sonable endowed with reason: rational: acting according to reason: agreeable to reason: just: not excessive: moderate.—n. Rea′sonableness.—adv. Rea′sonably.—ns. Rea′soner; Rea′soning act of reasoning: that which is offered in argument: course of argument.—adj. Rea′sonless.—n. Rea′son-piece a wall plate.—By reason of on account of: in consequence of; Principle of sufficient reason the proposition that nothing happens without a sufficient reason why it should be as it is and not otherwise; Pure reason reason absolutely independent of experience.
Typist: Shelley
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. Propensitate of prejudice.
v.i. To weigh probabilities in the scales of desire.
Checker: Lorrie
Examples
- Reason is wholly inactive, and can never be the source of so active a principle as conscience, or a sense of morals. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- For what does reason discover, when it pronounces any action vicious? David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- But liberty had been a useless gift to me had I not, as I awakened to reason, at the same time awakened to revenge. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Sir Thomas approved of it for another reason. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- There can be no positive objection, Sir Percival, to that reason---- Very well! Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Poor Oliver tried to keep up with the coach a little way, but was unable to do it, by reason of his fatigue and sore feet. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- She had some guilty reason for going to the town secretly. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- I say this here for two reasons--because I hope to avoid the critical attack of the genuine Marxian specialist, and because the observation is, I believe, relevant to our subject. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Yes, but I can't dismiss him in an instant without assigning reasons, my dear Chettam. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- There are reasons now known to me, reasons in which you have no part, rendering it far better for you that you should not remain here. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- That he had his reasons for this, he knew full well. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- But across that long distance these currents for many reasons grew still weaker. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- It would seem that the manuscript is here imperfect, for we do not find the reasons which finally induce the curtal Friar to amend the King's cheer. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- Can you not clear up the last point in this mystery, and tell us the reasons for your action? Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- The more Adrian reasoned upon this scheme, the more feasible it appeared. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Here was a problem the like of which he had never encountered, and he felt rather than reasoned that he must meet it as a man and not as an ape. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- They reasoned, they appealed, they implored; on his mercy they cast themselves, into his hands they confidingly thrust their interests. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Mr. Skimpole gently reasoned with him as he made a little drawing of his head on the fly-leaf of a book. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- I forced back the contemptible tears that were no relief to ME, and that only distressed HER, and reasoned and pleaded as calmly as I could. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- It's so unsportsmanlike,' reasoned Winkle. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- She mustn't stop here, Becky reasoned with herself. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I cannot but in some sense admit the force of this reasoning, which I yet hope to traverse by the following considerations. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- It meant the apprehension of material which should ballast and check the exercise of reasoning. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- When a man is in love, said Crispin intensively, it is no use reasoning with him; and, as regards Helena, I quite approve of all you say. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- A like reasoning will account for the idea of external existence. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- The same truth may be proved still more evidently by that reasoning, which proved justice in general to be an artificial virtue. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- The origin of kindness from beauty may be explained from the foregoing reasoning. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- The image in the mind is only that of a particular object, though the application of it in our reasoning be the same, as if it were universal. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
Typed by Carla