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Reason vs Conscience - What's the difference?

reason | conscience |

In obsolete terms the difference between reason and conscience

is that reason is something reasonable, in accordance with thought; justice while conscience is consciousness; thinking; awareness, especially self-awareness.

As nouns the difference between reason and conscience

is that reason is a cause while conscience is the moral sense of right and wrong, chiefly as it affects one's own behaviour.

As a verb reason

is to exercise the rational faculty; to deduce inferences from premises; to perform the process of deduction or of induction; to ratiocinate; to reach conclusions by a systematic comparison of facts.

reason

English

(wikipedia reason)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A cause:
  • # That which causes something: an efficient cause, a proximate cause.
  • #* 1996 , (w), : Evolution and the Meanings of Life , page 198:
  • There is a reason why so many should be symmetrical: The selective advantage in a symmetrical complex is enjoyed by all the subunits
  • # A motive for an action or a determination.
  • #* 1806 , Anonymous, Select Notes to Book XXI, in, (Alexander Pope), translator, The (Odyssey) of (Homer) , volume 6 (London, F.J. du Roveray), page 37:
  • This is the reason why he proposes to offer a libation, to atone for the abuse of the day by their diversions.
  • #* 1881 , (Henry James), (The Portrait of a Lady) , chapter 10:
  • Ralph Touchett, for reasons best known to himself, had seen fit to say that Gilbert Osmond was not a good fellow
  • # An excuse: a thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation.
  • #* 1966 , (Graham Greene), ((Penguin Classics) edition, ISBN 0140184945), page 14:
  • I have forgotten the reason' he gave for not travelling by air. I felt sure that it was not the correct ' reason , and that he suffered from a heart trouble which he kept to himself.
  • (label) Rational]] thinking (or the capacity for it; the cognitive [[faculty, faculties, collectively, of conception, judgment, deduction and intuition.
  • * 1970 , (Hannah Arendt), On Violence (ISBN 0156695006), page 62:
  • And the specific distinction between man and beast is now, strictly speaking, no longer reason (the lumen naturale of the human animal) but science
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason . The architect of modern science was himself not very modern. He was obsessed with alchemy.}}
  • (label) Something reasonable, in accordance with thought; justice.
  • * (rfdate) (Edmund Spenser):
  • I was promised, on a time, To have reason for my rhyme.
  • Ratio; proportion.
  • (Barrow)

    Synonyms

    * (that which causes) cause * (motive for an action) rationale, motive * (thought offered in support) excuse

    Derived terms

    * age of reason * everything happens for a reason * for some reason * for no good reason * for XYZ reason * have reason * in reason * instrumental reason * reasonability * reasonable * reasonableness * reasonist * reasonless * rhyme or reason * stand to reason * unreason * with reason * within reason

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To exercise the rational faculty; to deduce inferences from premises; to perform the process of deduction or of induction; to ratiocinate; to reach conclusions by a systematic comparison of facts.
  • Hence: To carry on a process of deduction or of induction, in order to convince or to confute; to formulate and set forth propositions and the inferences from them; to argue.
  • To converse; to compare opinions.
  • To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss.
  • I reasoned the matter with my friend.
  • (rare) To support with reasons, as a request.
  • To persuade by reasoning or argument.
  • to reason''' one into a belief; to '''reason one out of his plan
  • To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons.
  • to reason down a passion
  • To find by logical process; to explain or justify by reason or argument.
  • to reason''' out the causes of the librations of the moon

    Derived terms

    * reasoner * reason out

    Statistics

    *

    conscience

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The moral sense of right and wrong, chiefly as it affects one's own behaviour.
  • * 1949 , , as quoted by Virgil Henshaw in Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist ,
  • Never do anything against conscience , even if the state demands it.
  • * 1951 , (Isaac Asimov), publication), part V: “The Merchant Princes”, chapter 14, page 175, ¶ 7
  • [“]Twer is not a friend of mine testifying against me reluctantly and for conscience ’ sake, as the prosecution would have you believe. He is a spy, performing his paid job.[”]
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=18 citation , passage=‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience ,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?}}
  • (chiefly fiction) A personification of the moral sense of right and wrong, usually in the form of a person, a being or merely a voice that gives moral lessons and advices.
  • (obsolete) Consciousness; thinking; awareness, especially self-awareness.
  • * 1603 , (William Shakespeare), (Hamlet) , act 3, scene 1,
  • Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
    And thus the native hue of resolution
    Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often used with "conscience": good, bad, guilty. * Phrases: To make conscience of, To make a matter of conscience, to act according to the dictates of conscience concerning (any matter), or to scruple to act contrary to its dictates.

    Derived terms

    * consciencelike * conscience money * conscience vote * conscientious * make conscience * pang of conscience

    See also

    * synteresis