Reason vs Wherefore - What's the difference?
reason | wherefore |
A cause:
# That which causes something: an efficient cause, a proximate cause.
#* 1996 , (w), : Evolution and the Meanings of Life , page 198:
# 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:
#* 1881 , (Henry James), (The Portrait of a Lady) , chapter 10:
# 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:
(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:
*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (label) Something reasonable, in accordance with thought; justice.
* (rfdate) (Edmund Spenser):
Ratio; proportion.
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.
(rare) To support with reasons, as a request.
To persuade by reasoning or argument.
To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons.
To find by logical process; to explain or justify by reason or argument.
(conjunctive, archaic) Why, for what reason, because of what.
* 1920 , (Herman Cyril McNeile), Bulldog Drummond Chapter 1
* "Job", Holy Bible King James Version, 21:7:
* 1595 ,
* 1595 ,
(conjunctive, archaic, or, formal) Therefore.
(archaic) Because of which.
:* Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. (Isaiah 30:12-13)
:* {{quote-book
, year=1914
, year_published=2009
, edition=HTML
, editor=
, author=Edgar Rice Burroughs
, title=The Mucker
, chapter=
As nouns the difference between reason and wherefore
is that reason is a cause while wherefore is an intent or purpose; a why.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.As an adverb wherefore is
why, for what reason, because of what.As a conjunction wherefore is
because of which.reason
English
(wikipedia reason)Noun
(en noun)- There is a reason why so many should be symmetrical: The selective advantage in a symmetrical complex is enjoyed by all the subunits
- This is the reason why he proposes to offer a libation, to atone for the abuse of the day by their diversions.
- Ralph Touchett, for reasons best known to himself, had seen fit to say that Gilbert Osmond was not a good fellow
- 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.
- And the specific distinction between man and beast is now, strictly speaking, no longer reason (the lumen naturale of the human animal) but science
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.}}
- I was promised, on a time, To have reason for my rhyme.
- (Barrow)
Synonyms
* (that which causes) cause * (motive for an action) rationale, motive * (thought offered in support) excuseDerived 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 reasonVerb
(en verb)- I reasoned the matter with my friend.
- to reason''' one into a belief; to '''reason one out of his plan
- to reason down a passion
- to reason''' out the causes of the librations of the moon
Derived terms
* reasoner * reason outStatistics
*External links
* *wherefore
English
Adverb
(-)- "Good morning, Mrs. Denny," he said. "Wherefore this worried look on your face? Has that reprobate James been misbehaving himself?"
- Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
- Romeo, O Romeo. Wherefore art thou, Romeo?
- Every why hath a wherefore .
Usage notes
* A common misconception is that wherefore means where''; it has even been used in that sense in cartoon depictions of Romeo and Juliet, often played for comedic effect. In ''Romeo and Juliet'', the meaning of “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” () is not “''Where'' are you, Romeo?” but “''Why are you Romeo?” (i.e. “Why did you have to be a Montague?”).See also
*Conjunction
(English Conjunctions)Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. (Isaiah 30:12-13)
citation, genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=Wherefore it was that by the time the authorities awoke to the fact that something had happened Billy Byrne was fifty miles west of Joliet, bowling along aboard a fast Santa Fe freight. }}