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In philosophy, reason (from Latin ratio, by way of French raison) is the faculty by means of which or the process through which human beings perform thought, especially abstract thought. Many thinkers have pondered reason, and the various views on the nature of reason may not be compatible with one another.
Reason is sometimes narrowly defined as the faculty or process of drawing logical inferences. From Aristotle onwards, such reasoning has been classified as either deductive reasoning, meaning "from the general to the particular", or inductive reasoning, meaning "from the particular to the general". In the 19th century, Charles Peirce, an American philosopher, added a third classification, abductive reasoning, by which he meant "from the best available information to the best explanation", which has become an important component of the scientific method. In modern usage, "inductive reasoning" sometimes includes almost all non-deductive reasoning, including what Peirce would call "abductive". (See also logic, term logic.)
Reason has also been conceived more broadly. George Lakoff and Mark JohnsonJohnson is Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. He is well-known for contributions to embodied philosophy, cognitive science and cognitive linguistics with George Lakoff, but he has als explicate reason and its scope in this manner:
Some think of reason as opposed to sensation, perceptionIn psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. Methods of studying perception range from essentially biological or physiological approaches, through psychologi, feeling, and desire; others [ David HumeDavid Hume ( April 26, 1711 August 25, 1776), Scottish philosopher and historian and, with Adam Smith and Thomas Reid among others, one of the most important figures in the Scottish Enlightenment. Hume is sometimes regarded as the third and most radical o? ] see reason as the servant of desires -- the means of getting what one wants.
RationalistsThis article is not about continental rationalism. Rationalism also known as the rationalist movement is a philosophical doctrine that asserts that the truth should be determined by reason and factual analysis, rather than faith, dogma or religious teachi see reason as the faculty by which fundamental truths are intuitively apprehended. These fundamental truths are the causes or "reasons" that things exist or happen. EmpiricistsEmpiricism is the school of Epistemology (in philosophy or psychology) that virtually all knowledge is the result of our experiences. See John Locke's Tabula rasa or "blank slate" theory. Radical Empiricism holds that our knowledge is essentially nothing deny the existence of such a faculty.For Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant ( April 22, 1724 February 12, 1804) was a Prussian philosopher, generally regarded as the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment, having a major impact on the Romantic and Idealist philosophies of the 19th century, and as one of history, reason (Vernunft in Kant's German languageGerman (called Deutsch in German in which germanisch refers to prechristian times), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and one of the world's major languages. It is the language with the most native speakers in the European Union.) is the power of synthesizing into unity, by means of comprehensive principles, the concepts provided by the intellect (Verstand). The reason which gives a priori principles Kant calls "Pure Reason" (as in his A Critique of Pure Reason), as distinguished from the "Practical Reason" which is specially concerned with the performance of particular actions.
In theology, reason, as distinguished from faith, is the human intelligence exercised upon religious truth whether by way of discovery or by way of explanation. The limits within which reason may be used have been laid down differently in different churches and periods of thought: on the whole, modern Christianity, especially in the Protestant churches, tends to allow to reason a wide field, reserving, however, as the sphere of faith the ultimate ( supernatural) truths of theology.
Regardless of how it is conceived, reason has often been seen as a uniquely human trait, which separates us from the other animals.
These days, the idea of reason as an independent faculty of the mind, separate from emotions, and unique to humanity, is under attack from a number of sources. Consider, for example, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's theories about the "embodied mind". (See the Lakoff article for more information.)
For a critique of reason's preeminent position within western culture since the Renaissance, see Voltaire's Bastards by John Ralston Saul.
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