Reason

Reason: The capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; intelligence. We can acquire new knowledge about the world by using reason.

Kinds of reasoning:

Deductive reasoning – Any form of reasoning that moves from the general to the particular.

All metals expand when heated
“A” is a metal
Therefore “A” expands when heated

Inductive reasoning – form of reasoning that moves from the particular to the general.

Metal “A” expands when heated; metal “B” expands when heated; metal “C” expands when heated.
Therefore all metals expand when heated.

Informal reasoning – Assuming things because of given information.

Which of our faculties do you think is more reliable – reason or perception?

Reason, because our perception can mislead us, while our reasoning, if is well based will lead us to a correct answer or idea. To show this in an example, I’ll use the story of Richard the farmer (http://karlaprepcourse.blogspot.com/2009/11/richard-farmer.html). His perception told him that his cow, Doris, was in a particular place of the field, but he was in a mistake. He “confused” his cow with other thing. Changing the story a little bit, let’s imagine that he sees his cow by the window, in its corral. Then, he would know that his cow is not in the field, by reasoning that if Doris is in the corral, she cannot be in the field.

"The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything but his reason"
G. K. CHESTERTON, 1874-1936