raisonement

Raisonement is the mental process of deriving conclusions from premises and available evidence. It encompasses both assessing evidence and constructing arguments. The term comes from raison (reason) and the suffix -nement, and it is used in philosophy, logic, cognitive science, and everyday speech to describe how beliefs are justified and conclusions are reached.

Raisonement is often divided into deductive, inductive, and abductive forms. Deductive reasoning aims for necessity: true premises and valid inference yield certain conclusions. Inductive reasoning generalizes from observed cases to broader generalizations. Abductive reasoning seeks the most plausible explanation for a set of facts. Modern discussions also consider probabilistic and causal reasoning to handle uncertainty.

Practically, raisonement involves building arguments, evaluating evidence, ensuring coherence, and avoiding logical fallacies. Formal logic models reasoning with rules of inference, while probability theory handles uncertainty. Cognitive science examines how people actually reason, revealing biases and heuristics that can distort conclusions.

In philosophy, raisonnement underpins epistemology, ethics, and the theory of justification, addressing questions about what counts as good reasons. In law, science, and artificial intelligence, structured argumentation and automated reasoning aim to codify and improve human inference.