\Rea"son*ing\, n.
1. The act or process of adducing a reason or reasons; manner
   of presenting one's reasons.
2. That which is offered in argument; proofs or reasons when
   arranged and developed; course of argument.
         His reasoning was sufficiently profound. --Macaulay.
Syn: Argumentation; argument.
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.