ratiocination

Noun

ratiocination (usually uncountable, plural ratiocinations)

1. (usually) Reasoning, conscious deliberate inference; the activity or process of reasoning.
   • But it will be apparent from the refutation of the ſecond Falſification, wherewith you charge the Author of the Letters, that theſe miſchievous conſequences are rightly drawn from the wicked principle layd down by Vaſquez [Gabriel Vásquez] in the ſame place, and accordingly, that that Jeſuit hath...1658, [Blaise Pascal], transl. sometimes attributed to John Evelyn, “The Answer of a Certain Apologist for the Jesuits to the XII. Letter, Refuted”, in Les Provinciales, or, The Mystery of...
   • He'd run in Debt by Diſputation, / And pay with Ratiocination. / All this by Syllogiſm, true / In Mood and Figure, he wou'd do.1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras. The First Part. Written in the Time of the Late Wars, London: Printed by J. G. for Richard Marriot [...], →OCLC; republished as Hudibras. In Three Parts. Written in the...
2. (usually) Thought or reasoning that is exact, valid and rational.
   • Finally Tao comes to possess the meaning of “rational speech” or “word,” and in this sense it closely resembles the Greek Logos, for in addition to its philosophical significance the term Tao touches a religious chord in the souls of the Chinese just as did the word Logos among the Platonists and...1913, Paul Carus, “Introduction”, in Lao-tze, translated by Paul Carus, The Canon of Reason and Virtue: 老子 道德經: Being Lao-tze’s Tao Teh King: Chinese and English, Chicago, Ill.: Open Court Publishing...
3. (usually) A proposition arrived at by such thought.
   • Where the Qur’an has not been explicit, the Hadith has often supplied guidance, providing an intermediate source of knowledge between the text of the Holy Book itself and the ratiocinations of the religious lawyers, the fuqaha’, who had recourse, when all else failed, to such principles as...1975, C[lifford] E[dmund] Bosworth, “Foreword”, in Imam Nawawi, translated by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, Gardens of the Righteous: Riyadh as-Salihin, Abingdon, Oxon.: Published with the permission of...