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Rationale   Listen
noun
Rationale  n.  An explanation or exposition of the principles of some opinion, action, hypothesis, phenomenon, or the like; also, the principles themselves.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Rationale" Quotes from Famous Books



... Belfast, the rationale of their appearance on such occasions seems to be that, on the sudden formation and descent of the first drops, the air expanding and rushing into the void spaces, robs the succeeding drops of their caloric ...
— Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and • James Emerson Tennent

... rationale then, of the first condition of continued existence in this world, is (a) the development of a Will so powerful as to overcome the hereditary (in a Darwinian sense) tendencies of the atoms composing the "gross" and palpable animal frame, to hurry on at a particular ...
— Five Years Of Theosophy • Various

... symbol Marl. I was or had been an entity Marl. Were there others back there, somewhere? There must have been, must be yet. Was I the only Marl who metamorphosed into this state of rational entity? Surely not. Yet I could contact no other rationale around me as far away as I could probe. How far was that? How could I know. Was it far enough to reach the other Marls, or were they scattered thinly throughout infinity around me ...
— Cogito, Ergo Sum • John Foster West

... is the rationale of this kind of clairvoyance? As I have indicated above, it belongs usually to the "astral-current" type, and the crystal or other object simply acts as a focus for the will-power of the seer, and a convenient starting-point for his astral tube. There are some ...
— Clairvoyance • Charles Webster Leadbeater

... highest importance when duly sifted with a view to the discovery of the truth. Why should we neglect any source from which light may be obtained? Such arguments fill a large part of Bentham's elaborate treatise upon the 'Rationale of Evidence,' and support his denunciations of the 'artificial' system of English law. English lawyers, he held, thought only of 'fee-gathering'; and their technical methods virtually reduced a trial from an impartial ...
— The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart., K.C.S.I. - A Judge of the High Court of Justice • Sir Leslie Stephen

... philosophy, and later inspector of the French college at Berlin, where he enjoyed considerable reputation as a representative of Cartesianism and as a student of physics. His principal work is a laborious Lexicon Rationale, sive Thesaurus Philosophicus (Rotterdam, 1692; new and enlarged edition, Leuwarden, 1713). He also wrote Theses de Cognitione Dei (1662), and started the Nouveau Journal ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1 - "Chtelet" to "Chicago" • Various

... his singular research. The so-called magicians, accessible to the curiosity of European travellers, were either but ingenious jugglers, or produced effects that perplexed him by practices they had mechanically learned, but of the rationale of which they were as ignorant as himself. It was not till he had resided some considerable time in the East, and acquired a familiar knowledge of its current languages and the social habits of its various populations, that he became acquainted with men in whom he recognized earnest cultivators ...
— A Strange Story, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... become English, they are no longer italicized. Among such words are: rationale, aide-de-camp, quartette, naive, libretto. It is often a matter of discretion to say whether a word is so far naturalized that it should be written ...
— "Stops" - Or How to Punctuate. A Practical Handbook for Writers and Students • Paul Allardyce

... properties of the several ingredients" "and the part they perform in the compound:" or, as it is elsewhere expressed, such a mixture should not receive the sanction of this department "unless perhaps a satisfactory rationale should be given for the use of each of the ingredients in ...
— Scientific American, Vol. 17, No. 26 December 28, 1867 • Various

... summarily to the bar of the wisdom of the author's year of grace. They are approved or condemned by this criterion. For Baur, all things had come to pass in the process of the great life of the world. There must have been a rationale of their becoming. It is for the historian with sympathy and imagination to find out what their inherent reason was. One other thing distinguishes Baur as church historian from his predecessors. He realised that before one can delineate one must investigate. One must go to the sources. ...
— Edward Caldwell Moore - Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant • Edward Moore

... subalterns are put through their exercise by the field officers. At this muster, which I attended, the superior officers in command certainly appeared to be sufficiently conversant with tactics, and explained the rationale of each movement in a clear and concise manner; but the captains and subalterns went through their exercise somewhat in the manner of the yeomen of the Green Island. When the gentlemen were placed in line, and attention was commanded, the General turned round to converse ...
— A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles through the United States of America • S. A. Ferrall

... 139 Rationale of the Temperament, Concluded. Proposition II. Proposition III. Numerical Comparison of the Diatonic with the Tempered Scale. ...
— Piano Tuning - A Simple and Accurate Method for Amateurs • J. Cree Fischer

... been wrought by animal magnetism or mesmerism, may be explained by mental influence; and so likewise those affected by metallic tractors, anodyne necklaces, and a host of other devices. We have indeed an intelligible explanation of the rationale of many therapeutic methods in vogue at different periods of ...
— Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery • Robert Means Lawrence

... Bohemianism, has very truly shown that the rationale of a great deal of this is simply the attempt of men to obtain from social intercourse the largest amount of positive pleasure or amusement it can give by discarding the forms, the costly conventionalities, the social restrictions ...
— The Map of Life - Conduct and Character • William Edward Hartpole Lecky

... in 1459, Faust and Schoeffer produced an almost fac-simile reprint of the Psalter, and in the same year Durandi Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, the latter with an entirely new font of metal type—the first cast from Schoeffer's punches—which some, in the erroneous belief that the Psalter was printed from wooden types, have asserted to be the first dated book printed with metal type. ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 8 - The Later Renaissance: From Gutenberg To The Reformation • Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson

... called, the "reading pew," occurs till 1603, when, in the ecclesiastical canons then framed, it was enjoined that besides the pulpit a fitting or convenient seat should be constructed for the minister to read service in; and in allusion to the reading desk, Bishop Sparrow, in his Rationale of the Book of Common Prayer, observes, "This was the ancient custom of the church of England, that the priest who did officiate in all those parts of the service which were directed to the people turned himself towards them, as in the absolution; but in those parts of the office which were ...
— The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed. • Matthew Holbeche Bloxam

... tools between herself and her outrider. All in the middle of the road at a stand-still—chaise and pony and all,—and Daisy herself in particular. I found it was an interrupted expedition, and invited Daisy to take a ride with me; which she did, and I got at the rationale of the affair. And I come now to make the request, as her physician, not as her friend, that her expeditions may be as little interfered with as possible. Let her energies work. The very best thing for her is that they should find something ...
— Melbourne House, Volume 2 • Susan Warner

... in his convent in the fifteenth, passed through a similar experience;—different in form, identical in substance—with that of Paul the persecutor. And so Paul's Gospel, which was the description and explanation, the rationale, of his own experience, became their Gospel; and when Paul said: 'Not by works of righteousness which our own hands have done, but by His mercy He saved us' (Titus iii. 5), the great voice from the North African shore, in the midst of the agonies of barbarian invasions and a falling Rome, said ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts • Alexander Maclaren

... the order of presentation is the experiment, rationale, and remarks. A study of the "Philosophy" shows clearly that Cutbush presented his material in a rather original fashion. His method is not observable in any of the text-books ...
— James Cutbush - An American Chemist, 1788-1823 • Edgar F. Smith

... no new world; it could only draw the new world creations and world relations within the orbit of its activity, because the practical need whose rationale is egoism remains a passive state, which does not extend itself by spontaneous act, but only expands with the ...
— Selected Essays • Karl Marx

... found by Joseph Moseley, with sufficient clearness; and it is charitable to assume that the Irish editor intended to observe the instructions of his precursor. He failed, it seems—but why? It would be useless to go in search of the rationale of a blunder. ...
— Notes & Queries No. 29, Saturday, May 18, 1850 • Various

... point at considerable length, and with an earnest and implicit faith singularly at variance with his enlightened scepticism in other matters. But there were regions of superstition in which even this Sampson of logic became imbecile and powerless. The rationale of the bleeding of a murdered corpse at the touch of the murderer is given by Sir Kenelm Digby with ...
— Discovery of Witches - The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster • Thomas Potts

... relatively few of a population. The raison d'etre of the greater number of minor mental inefficiencies the psychanalyst puts down to handicaps in the unconscious. Again he mistakes figurative imagery for explanations. The conception of endocrine diversity in the make-up supplies us with the rationale of the vast majority of organic and functional defects and inferiorities, in short, subnormalities of any ...
— The Glands Regulating Personality • Louis Berman, M.D.

... assertion of English freedom as requiring a central authority in which to rest. It is curious, in the opening pages, to see how, in his theories of government, he is led away by the popular and alluring philosophy of Rousseau and Rousseau's interpreter, Jefferson. When he undertakes to explain the rationale of government he is a young man, captivated by the current mode; when he reaches the immediate, practical duty he is an Englishman, speaking to the point, and lighting upon the one unanswerable demand of American political life at the time. ...
— Noah Webster - American Men of Letters • Horace E. Scudder

... is to be seen in newly-sprung varieties, which by general consent cannot have been subjected to a prolonged Selection. The discovery of Mendelian elements admirably coincided with and at once gave a rationale of these facts. Genetic Variation is then primarily the consequence of additions to, or omissions from, the stock of elements which the species contains. The further investigation of the species-problem ...
— Evolution in Modern Thought • Ernst Haeckel

... apprehended as a system with a single principle and so as something wholly rational or reasonable He has not on each occasion to seek and find the right rule applicable to the situation, he produces it at once from within himself, and can at need justify it by exhibiting its rationale, i.e. , its connection with the end. This is the consummate form of reason applied to conduct, but there are minor forms of it, less independent or original, but nevertheless of great value, such as the power to think out the proper cause of policy in novel circumstances or the ...
— Ethics • Aristotle

... theory and principles of the contract of insurance, to give its history, and to deduce from its rationale and the facts the developments of which this contract is capable, and the various useful applications possible in the present state of commercial and ...
— The Philosophy of Misery • Joseph-Pierre Proudhon

... cannot learn of any book of this name. Perhaps Johnson saw Durandi Rationale Officiorum Divinorum, which was printed in 1459, one year later than Johnson mentions. A copy of this he had seen at Blenheim in 1774. His Journey ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell

... rational creatures, know very little of the world, and if they act themselves upon that supposition, will nine times in ten find themselves grossly mistaken. That man is, 'animal bipes, implume, risibile', I entirely agree; but for the 'rationale', I can only allow it him 'in actu primo' (to talk logic) and seldom in 'actu secundo'. Thus, the speculative, cloistered pedant, in his solitary cell, forms systems of things as they should be, not as they are; and writes as decisively and absurdly upon war, politics, manners, and characters, as ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield

... realise the truth that with the mind as with the body the ornamental precedes the useful, it is requisite to glance at its rationale. This lies in the fact that, from the far past down even to the present, social needs have subordinated individual needs, and that the chief social need has been the control of individuals. It is not, as we commonly suppose, that there are no governments but those ...
— Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects - Everyman's Library • Herbert Spencer

... the later philosophic schools appealed to revelation also. The theoretical as well as the practical doctrines which embraced the peculiar conception of the world and the ethics of the school, together with their rationale, were described in these schools as dogmas. Now, in so far as the adherents of the Christian religion possess dogmas in this sense, and form a community which has gained an understanding of its religious faith by ...
— History of Dogma, Volume 1 (of 7) • Adolph Harnack

... authorities cited," to wit, the Hays case and those decided by analogy to it.[735] Four Justices, speaking by Chief Justice Stone dissented, urging the Pullman Case[736] as an applicable model and the fact that "the rationale found necessary to support the present tax leaves other States free to impose comparable taxes on the same property."[737] Evidently in this area of Constitutional Law the Court is still much at sea or better ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin

... his manner," said David, good-naturedly. "His heart is all right; I never met a better. What sort of a knot is that you are tying? Why, that is a granny's knot;" and he looked morose, at which she looked amazed; so he softened, and explained to her with benevolence the rationale of a knot. "A knot is a fastening intended to be undone again by fingers, and not to come undone without them. Accordingly, a knot is no knot at all if it jams or if it slips. A granny's knot does both; when you want to untie ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade

... used to indicate slowness. So, too, of the Alexandrine in English versification. No, says Campbell, there is a difference: the Alexandrine is not in fact, like the dactylic line, pronounced in the common time. But does this alter the principle? What is the rationale of Metre, whether the classical hexameter ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 1 January 1848 • Various

... in your logical researches [that is, in asking for the book, I had described some results]. Since the reading of your first paper I have been satisfied as to the possibility of inventing a logical notation in which the rationale of the inference is contained in the symbol, though I never attempted to verify it [what I communicated, then, satisfied the writer that I had done and communicated what he, from my previous paper, suspected to be practicable]. I send you ...
— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I (of II) • Augustus De Morgan

... petition and the happening of an event, whereas the religious spirit is as strongly attached to it, and finds its very life in prayer. Yet even the religious man sometimes feels uneasy as to the rationale of prayer; is he teaching the All-wise, is he urging beneficence on the All-Good, is he altering the will of Him in "whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning?"[295] Yet he finds in his own experience and in that of others "answers to prayer," ...
— Esoteric Christianity, or The Lesser Mysteries • Annie Besant

... principles, which are exhibited in the shape of axioms and definitions, and unfolded, by rigorous logical deduction, in a series of propositions, with occasional scholia and corollaries, after the method of Geometry; a system which undertakes to explain the rationale of every part of human knowledge, to interpret alike the Book of Nature and the Book of Revelation, to determine the character of prophetic inspiration, and to account for apparent miracles on natural principles, to establish the real foundations ...
— Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws • James Buchanan

... and the House of Representatives, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives detailing the projects for which the authority granted by subsection (a) was used, the rationale for its use, the funds spent using that authority, the outcome of each project for which that authority was used, and the results of any audits of such projects. (e) Definition of Nontraditional Government ...
— Homeland Security Act of 2002 - Updated Through October 14, 2008 • Committee on Homeland Security, U.S. House of Representatives

... beauty of the Hottentot, and the physical peculiarity they praise most either disgusts or amuses us. But what is there about a white skin more lovely than a black one, and why thrill over blue eyes and neglect the brown ones? What is the rationale for the admiration of slimness as against stoutness? Indeed, there are races who would turn with scorn from our slender debutante[1] and worship their more buxom heavy-busted and wide-hipped beauties. ...
— The Foundations of Personality • Abraham Myerson

...Rationale of Verse. Essays by Edgar Allan Poe; to be found in his collected works. Very interesting as showing the methods and viewpoint of ...
— Rhymes and Meters - A Practical Manual for Versifiers • Horatio Winslow



Words linked to "Rationale" :   ratiocinate, explanation, principle, dialectics, law



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