Reasoning

Reasoning is the soul's movement from hypothesis to first principle, ascending through dialectic to the Good.

Reasoning is the syllogism: a discourse in which, certain things being posited, something different necessarily follows.

Human reasoning is discursive, moving step by step from principles to conclusions; angels and God know by direct intuition.

Sound reasoning proceeds by chains of clear and distinct intuitions; each step must be as certain as the first principle.

Reasoning is computation: adding and subtracting names according to agreed definitions.

Reasoning discovers the connection between ideas; it enlarges knowledge beyond intuition but depends on careful management of evidence.

All reasoning about matters of fact rests on the relation of cause and effect, and that relation is grounded in habit, not logic.

Reason seeks the unconditioned ground of every conditioned judgment; this drive is both necessary and prone to illusion.

All reasoning is from particulars to particulars; the syllogism registers results already obtained by induction.