different between rationalization vs ratiocination

English

Alternative forms

• rationalisation

Etymology

[1908] From French rationalisation.

Noun

rationalization (countable and uncountable, plural rationalizations)

1. The process, or result of rationalizing.
2. A statement of one's motives, or of the causes of some event.
3. A reorganization of a company or organization in order to improve its efficiency.
4. (psychiatry) The concealment of true motivation in some non-threatening way.
5. (mathematics) The simplification of an expression without changing its value.

Synonyms

• (statement of one's motives, or of the causes of some event): reasoning, rationale
• (reorganization of a company or organization): consolidation
• (concealment of true motivation):
• (simplification of a mathematical expression):

Translations

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French ratiocination, from Latin rati?cin?ti? (“argumentation, reasoning, ratiocination; a syllogism”), from rati?cin?tus (“reckoned”) + -ti? (“suffix forming a noun relating to some action or the result of an action”). Rati?cin?tus is the perfect passive participle of rati?cinor (“to compute, reckon; to argue, infer”), from rati? (“reason, explanation”) (from reor (“to calculate, reckon”), possibly from Proto-Italic *r??r, from Proto-Indo-European *h?reh?- (“to put in order”)) + -cinor, modelled after v?ticinor (“to foretell, prophesy”), equivalent to ratiocinate +? -ion.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?æt???s??ne??n?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?æti??si?ne??n?/, /?æ?i-/
• Hyphenation: ra?ti?o?ci?na?tion

Noun

ratiocination (usually uncountable, plural ratiocinations)

1. Reasoning, conscious deliberate inference; the activity or process of reasoning.
2. Thought or reasoning that is exact, valid and rational.
3. A proposition arrived at by such thought.

Synonyms

• reasoning

Related terms

• ratiocinate
• ratiocinative
• ratiocinatively
• ratiocinator
• ratiocinatory

Translations

See also

• logic
• syllogism

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “ratiocination”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

Further reading

• reason on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• ratiocination in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ratiocination in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.