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No.5.
Reason.
pp. 157 - 159
We have seen that sense impressions apart from memory could form no basis for the
exercise of thought, but that memory enables the mind to re-collect these impressions,
and so make the comparison of one impression with another possible. Thus, the way is
open for that process of the mind, which we call "reason". The word "reason" is derived
from the Latin ratio. Ratio means essentially a calculation or a reckoning, and
ratiocination is the act or process of deducing consequences from premises.
Because some have placed reason in the place that faith should occupy, and because
the true and beautiful word "rational" has been degraded by the term "rationalism", that
is no justification for denying the supreme place that the exercise of reason holds in the
process of thought. Whoever uses a grammatical sentence intelligently employs reason,
for there is a logical connexion between noun and verb, between adjective and noun, etc.,
that makes language what it is. We have heard of some who "want a religion without
argument" but such are confusing terms. Without argument, a book would be but a
collection of words without association, relation or intention. Reason has been explained
as "the power of thinking consecutively; the power of passing in mental review all the
facts and principles bearing on a subject, and after carefully considering their bearings,
drawing conclusions" ("Lloyd Encyclopędic Dictionary"). The "Oxford Dictionary"
defines reason as "a statement of some fact (real or alleged) employed as an argument to
justify or condemn some act, prove or disprove some assertion, idea, or belief".
"Reason issues in judgment, and judgment leads to a conclusion. Judgment is the act
or process of the mind in ascertaining the truth by comparison of ideas, facts or
propositions. It is the examination of the relationship between one proposition and
another. It is the faculty of judging wisely, truly, or skillfully: discernment,
discrimination, good sense" (Unknown author).
At last in this attempt at definition, the word "sense" emerges, as we found that it did
earlier. We employ our senses, to enable us to attain to the sense of any statement, but