Deductive Reasoning

Deductive Reasoning

Way of thinking that relates ideas to one another in reaching conclusions.

Deductive reasoning is a way of reasoning that relates two or more general concepts or conditions to a specific case. For example, a child learns that birds fly south in October, and that a robin is a bird, he will use deductive reasoning to conclude that a robin will fly south in October. Deductive reasoning is often confused with inductive reasoning, which uses a specific observation to reach a general conclusion.