Reason

(re'zn.) [ Fr. rais on; L. reor,to think.] (Philos.) A.faculty of the human mind by which it distinguishes truth from falsehood, and good from evil, and which enables the po e or to deduce inferences from facts or from propositions. R. differs from understanding, which is the faculty of reflection and generalization; and from instinct, which is a mere natural impulse, by which animals are directed to certain actions, nece ary for the preservation of the individual or the species. Instinct has nothing to do with reflection or experience; the wasp, in whatever solitude it maybe reared, puts a food which it does not use itself, along with its eggs, into a hole; and just enough of it to support the larva, which it will never see, until it is able to provide for itself.- Reasoning or Ratiocination is an operation of the mind deducing some unknown proposition from others that are evident and known. Every act of reasoning nece arily includes three distinct judgments; two, in which the ideas whose relation we want to discover are severally compared with the middle idea; and a third, in which they are themselves connected or disjoined, according to the result of that comparison. Now, as our judgments when put into words are called Propositions, so the expre ions of our reasonings are termed Syllogisms. And hence it follows that as every act of reasoning implies three several judgments, so every syllogism in ust include three distinct propositions. See SYLLOGIEM. [s. 756]