What is Reason?

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edarlitrix

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The catechism mentions “human reason” in several different contexts–knowing God, discerning right from wrong, and man as in the image of God.

36 "Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason."11 Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God’s revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created “in the image of God”.12

1730 God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. "God willed that man should be ‘left in the hand of his own counsel,’ so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him."26

Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts.27

1786 Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason [emphasis added] and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them.

1872 Sin is an act contrary to reason. It wounds man’s nature and injures human solidarity.

But, what is “reason”? As far as I know, the catechism never defines reason in a way that makes sense in all contexts.
 
The Catholic Church delays the reception of the BODY and BLOOD of JESUS until age 7, which is recognized by the Church as the age in which “reason” should be formed and applied. Therefore, reason is the ability to know “right from wrong”, “good from bad” and to then hopefully begin to choose to do the “right” and the “good” and live a life that is directed toward GOD, the author of our reason.

There are deeper definitions from logic, philosophy etc., but for the purpose of your question, this should assist you in your question.
 
I would define reason as the ability to correctly use logic.

The logic can be used to figure out right/wrong.

As people say, when someone holds onto an illogical position, they are called ‘unreasonable’.
 
Reason is going from truth to truth. Or as the late great Fr. Hardon put it:

REASON. In general, the mind in its function of attaining the truth. Also the basis or evidence used by the mind in its pursuit of truth. It differs from the intellect, whose proper role is to perceive the truth, whether arrived at by a reasoning process or perceived immediately as intuition. Reason, therefore, is a process, where intellect is possession.

Source: Modern Catholic Dictionary, digital ed.

Natural reason is this faculty unaided by divine grace. By natural reason we can arrive at many truths including God’s existence. Other truths require faith (e.g. the Blessed Trinity); however, faith does not exclude reason. It may go beyond it, but it never goes against it. The two work together.
 
edarlitrix said:
But, what is “reason”? As far as I know, the catechism never defines reason in a way that makes sense in all contexts.
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Reason is an operation of the intellect.

The intellect is both “passive” and “active”. It is passive, in that it receives information from the world, through the senses; it is active in that it takes hold of what the senses present and forms them into universal ideas. In classical philosophy, we arrive at reasoning through 3 steps:

Simple Apprehension: the act whereby the intellect understands the essence of something and forms a concept;

Judgment: the act whereby the intellect affirms or denies that concept;

Reasoning: the act whereby the intellect starts putting two concepts together, then with others, to form new, more complex, ideas. This process of reasoning is often called “discursive”.
 
Thomas assigns three acts to reasoning in the Proemium to his Commentary on the Posterior Analytics.

He basically relates the duplex operatio intellectus.
  1. First operation: The act by which we know what a thing is. The intellectual imagination. So I see 5 tables in front of me, and I abstract the concept “tableness” from that experience. That is, what it is to be that thing, the quiddity.
  2. Second operation: Intellectual judgment or “composition and division of things.” Basically, this act is the act by which we judge things true or false. After we’ve abstracted teh idea of table, if someone walks a dog in front of you and says, “This is a table.” You will say, “no it is not.” This judgment is the second act of the intellect.
  3. Induction: This is where we go from the things we expereince in reality and proceed from the unknown to the known. So, I hear a noise in the wall of my house, and question what it is. I then realize I have seen a number of ants recently, and realize ants have taken up residence in my home.
So, when the Church says “right reason” as regards morality, what it means is making a judgment in conformity with reality and truth. They have to use terminology “right” because human acts can proceed to infinity, so prudence is necessary when judging what we ought to do.
 
edarlitrix said:
The catechism mentions “human reason” in several different contexts–knowing God, discerning right from wrong, and man as in the image of God.

36 "Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason."11 Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God’s revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created “in the image of God”.12

1730 God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. "God willed that man should be ‘left in the hand of his own counsel,’ so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him."26

Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts.27

1786 Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason [emphasis added] and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them.

1872 Sin is an act contrary to reason. It wounds man’s nature and injures human solidarity.

But, what is “reason”? As far as I know, the catechism never defines reason in a way that makes sense in all contexts.
Click to expand...
The other posters have made very good replies and there is not much to add to them. I’ll just add that reason is an intellectual power of our soul that seperates us from the brute animals. We are made to God’s image by this intellectual power of reason and will.
 
I’m not sure but I will pray that you find out what you are looking for.
Hail Mary…
 
The capacity to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic.

I stole most of that from the dictionary and tweaked it a little. 😃
 
Reasoning is seeking by creating intentions.
For reasoning to occur a purpose is needed first which becomes the meaning/initiative that starts the reasoning process that creates the intent. This causes the purpose into existence.
Reasoning is the connection by seeking.
Abraham by reasoning form a binding relationship with God.
When we have purpose to reason with God He reasons with us creating an binding intention for that purpose creating revelation in us.

Lord Jesus said ask have a purpose seek by reason and knock by intention and you will be answered.
 
edarlitrix said:
The catechism mentions “human reason” in several different contexts–knowing God, discerning right from wrong, and man as in the image of God.

36 "Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason."11 Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God’s revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created “in the image of God”.12

1730 God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. "God willed that man should be ‘left in the hand of his own counsel,’ so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him."26

Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts.27

1786 Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason [emphasis added] and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them.

1872 Sin is an act contrary to reason. It wounds man’s nature and injures human solidarity.

But, what is “reason”? As far as I know, the catechism never defines reason in a way that makes sense in all contexts.
Click to expand...
"Reason" is the name for the Mind’s orderly search to obtain more order. The heart delights in FINDING physical and spiritual order…called Beauty and Truth…but…“reason” is the mind’s or spirit’s search outward from a path of known order (truth)…into the previously unknown.

The more one’s search is based on known order…the more logical it is.
 
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