Reason, n.
Synonyms:
| account, | cause, | end, | motive, | principle, |
| aim, | consideration, | ground, | object, | purpose. |
| argument, | design, | |||
While the cause of any event, act, or fact, as commonly understood, is the power that makes it to be, the reason of or for it is the explanation given by the human mind; but reason is, in popular language, often used as equivalent to cause, especially in the sense of final cause. In the statement of any reasoning, the argument may be an entire syllogism, or the premises considered together apart from the conclusion, or in logical strictness the middle term only by which the particular conclusion is connected with the general statement. But when the reasoning is not in strict logical form, the middle term following the conclusion is called the reason; thus in the statement "All tyrants deserve death; Cæsar was a tyrant; Therefore Cæsar deserved death," "Cæsar was a tyrant" would in the strictest sense be called the argument; but if we say "Cæsar deserved death because he was a tyrant," the latter clause would be termed the reason. Compare CAUSE; REASON, v.; MIND; REASONING.
Prepositions:
The reason of a thing that is to be explained; the reason for a thing that is to be done.