REASON

Reason

Reason is the capacity for consciously making sense of things, applying logic, for establishing and verifying facts, and changing or justifying practices, institutions, and beliefs based on new or existing information. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, mathematics, and art, and is normally considered to be a definitive characteristic of human nature. The concept of reason is sometimes referred to as rationality and sometimes as discursive reason, in opposition to intuitive reason.

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reason

Noun

  1. A cause:
    1. That which causes something: an efficient cause, a proximate cause.
      The reason this tree fell is that it had rotted.
      1. A motive for an action or a determination.
      The reason I robbed the bank was that I needed the money.
      If you don't give me a reason to go with you, I won't.
      1. An excuse: a thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation.
  1. Rational thinking (or the capacity for it; the cognitive faculties, collectively, of conception, judgment, deduction and intuition.
Mankind should develop reason above all other virtues.
  1. Something reasonable, in accordance with thought; justice.
  2. ratio; proportion.

Verb

  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.
  3. To converse; to compare opinions.
  4. To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss.
    I reasoned the matter with my friend.
  5. To support with reasons, as a request.
  6. To persuade by reasoning or argument.
    to reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan
  7. To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons.
    to reason down a passion
  8. To find by logical process; to explain or justify by reason or argument.
    to reason out the causes of the librations of the moon'''


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: reason
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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