Definition of Reasoning backward

1. Noun. The reasoning involved when you assume the conclusion is true and reason backward to the evidence.

Exact synonyms: Regress
Generic synonyms: Abstract Thought, Logical Thinking, Reasoning

Lexicographical Neighbors of Reasoning Backward

reasonable
reasonable-person
reasonable care
reasonable doubt
reasonable person
reasonableness
reasonablenesses
reasonably
reasoned
reasoner
reasoners
reasonest
reasoneth
reasoning
reasoning(a)
reasoning backward (current term)
reasoning by elimination
reasonings
reasonist
reasonists
reasonless
reasonlessly
reasons

Literary usage of Reasoning backward

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Industrial Depressions: Their Causes Analysed and Classified with a by George Huntington Hull (1911)
"... mysteries remain so long unsolved is that nearly every one "reasons forward," whereas a reliable conclusion can be reached only by "reasoning backward. ..."

2. The Evolution of Life, Or, Causes of Change in Animal Forms: A Study in Biology by Hubbard Winslow Mitchell (1891)
"The study of the earth—Facts learned by reasoning backward —Nebular hypothesis—Kant and Laplace ; their theories— The incandescent state of our earth—It was ..."

3. The Evolution of Life by Hubbard Winslow Mitchell (1891)
"... the earth—Facts learned by reasoning backward —Nebular hypothesis—Kant and I,aplace ; their theories— The incandescent state of our earth—It was thrown ..."

4. A Grammar of Logic and Intellectual Philosophy, on Didactic Principles by Alexander Jamieson (1837)
"This step finishes the analysis, and proves the media to be legitimate, because the reasoning backward has reached its principle, the equality of the two ..."

5. Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies: With the Reports by Charles William Eliot (1894)
"What some pretend to know is really a result of reasoning backward, assuming as a premise the very point to be proved, and this is the way it is done : The ..."

6. Report of the Committee of Fifteen on Elementary Education: With the Reports (1895)
"What some pretend to know is really a result of reasoning backward, assuming as a premise the very point to be proved, and this is the way it is done : The ..."

7. A Course in Argumentative Writing by Gertrude Buck (1899)
"From this type of the reasoning backward doubtless sprang the name often applied to all its types, "the reasoning from sign." The "sign" is, of course, ..."

8. Report of the Annual Meeting (1895)
"... the recurrence of disturbances in newer beds in those parts where earlier movements had affected older beds; so that, reasoning backward, where we see ..."

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