2. That which is offered in argument; proofs or reasons when
arranged and developed; course of argument.
His reasoning was sufficiently profound. --Macaulay.
Usage: {Reasoning}, {Argumentation}. Few words are more
interchanged than these; and yet, technically, there
is a difference between them. Reasoning is the broader
term, including both deduction and induction.
Argumentation denotes simply the former, and descends
from the whole to some included part; while reasoning
embraces also the latter, and ascends from a part to a
whole. See {Induction}. Reasoning is occupied with
ideas and their relations; argumentation has to do
with the forms of logic. A thesis is set down: you
attack, I defend it; you insist, I prove; you
distinguish, I destroy your distinctions; my replies
balance or overturn your objections. Such is
argumentation. It supposes that there are two sides,
and that both agree to the same rules. Reasoning, on
the other hand, is often a natural process, by which
we form, from the general analogy of nature, or
special presumptions in the case, conclusions which
have greater or less degrees of force, and which may
be strengthened or weakened by subsequent experience.
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.
Stand still, that I may reason with you, before the
Lord, of all the righteous acts of the Lord. --1
Sam. xii. 7.
3. To converse; to compare opinions. --Shak.