Reasoning has two principal goals or points:

1.        to ascertain the truth of a claim, hypothesis, etc. – inquiry or investigation;

2.        to decide what to do – deliberation or decision-making.

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cf. Rhetoric The use of language primarily to persuade or influence beliefs and attitudes without reference to the provision of rational grounds. The effect and ‘power’ of rhetorical devices derives from the associations, connotations, and implications actors’ ascribe to this employment of words, sentences, and longer linguistic units – especially in the form of “the spoken word” such as oratory.