REASON, in logic, the premise or or premises of an argument, and espe cially the minor premise. In metaphys ics, the power of thinking consecutively; the power of passing in mental review all the facts and principles bearing on a subject, and, after a careful considera tion of their bearings, drawing conclu sions in many cases conformable with truth. Reason, weighing facts, discovers the law of gravitation, calculates eclipses, weighs the planets, ascertains the con stituent elements of the sun, and even of more distant worlds. It can exercise itself on the most abstract and spiritual theories, as well as on those of a simpler character. Reid distinguished between reason and judgment, considering the sphere of the former to be propositions capable of demonstration. Stewart con sidered the word reason as ambiguous. In common discourse it denotes the power of discriminating truth from falsehood, and right from wrong. To these he adds the power of devising means to accomplish ends; or reason may be limited to the power of distin guishing truth from falsehood; or it may be used of our rational power in general, or of the discursive faculty alone. Brown thinks that there is no
faculty of reason which is nothing more than a series of relative suggestions. Im manuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" appeared in 1781. Mill considers reason ing in its extended sense to be synony mous with inference, and divides it into induction, i. e., reasoning from particu lars to generals, and ratiocination, rea soning from generals to particulars. Formerly it was believed that of the whole visible creation man alone was capable of reasoning; but Darwin con siders that only a few persons now dis pute that animals possess some power of reason. Their actions may be due to instinct or to the association of ideas, the last named principle being connected with reason.
In history: On Nov. 10, 1793, the French National Convention ordered the worship of the Goddess of geason. Madame Maillard, selected as such a goddess, was drawn on a splendid car to the cathedral of Notie Dame to re ceive homage from the multitude. For some time afterward that cathedral was designated the Temple of Reason.