那么（苏格拉底之法）理性是什么？

维基中文：Reason理智（英语：Reason）最早源起于希腊文逻各斯（希腊语：λόγος，logos），它是逻辑（英语：logic）的字根。在罗马时代，译成拉丁语：ratio，它拉丁文的原意是计算金钱，但在等同于逻各斯后，成为哲学术语。译成法语：Raison。英语：Reason则是来自法语。

维基日语：理性(りせい、希:λόγος→羅:ratio→仏:raison→英:reason)は、人間存在に本来的に備わるとされる知的能力の一つである。平たく言えば推論(reasoning)能力である。世界理性というときは人間の能力という意味ではなく、世界を統べる原理、という意味である。

维基英语:Rationality:In philosophy, rationality is the exercise of reason. However, the term "rationality" tends to be used in the specialized discussions of economics, sociology, psychology and political science.

维基英语:Reason:In the English language and other modern European languages, "reason", and related words, represent words which have always been used to translate Latin and classical Greek terms in the sense of their philosophical usage.

The original Greek term was "λόγος" logos, the root of the modern English word "logic" but also a word which could mean for example "language" or "explanation" or an "account" (of money handled).

French raison is derived directly from Latin ratioas translation of logos, and this is the  direct source of the English word "reason".

The earliest major philosophers to publish in English, such as Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke also routinely wrote in Latin and French, and compared their terms to Greek, treating the words "logos", "ratio", "raison" and "reason" as inter-changeable.

维基英语:Reason is a term that refers to the capacity human beings have to make sense of things, to establish and verify facts, and to change or justify practices, institutions（习惯）and beliefs.

It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, mathematics and art, and is normally considered to be a definitive characteristic of human nature.

Reason or "reasoning" is associated with thinking, cognition, and intellect. Reason, like habit or intuition, is one of the ways by which thinking comes from one ideato a related idea.

For example, it is the means by which rational beings understand themselves to think about cause and effect, truth and falsehood, and what is good or bad.

In contrast to reason as an abstract noun, a reason is a onsideration which explains or justifies some event, phenomenon or behavior.The ways in which human beings reason through argument are the subject of inquiries in the field of logic.

Reason is closely identified with the ability to self-consciously change beliefs, attitudes, traditions, and institutions, and therefore with the capacity for freedom and self-determination.

因此，理性是纯粹的西方名词。理性源自古希腊。理性基于探究（inquiry）和逻辑（logic）。

按照十八世纪（启蒙时代，又叫理性时代：Age of Reason）以后的历史经验，理性有可能导致革命，但也有可能有助于社会的稳定。

我国理科学子的当务之急是获得学习科学所必须的理性推理(Reasoning)能力。

理性推理的核心是逻辑，它是从苏格拉底之问开始追求清晰的定义，经过了柏拉图全力鼓吹推理所必需的第一性原理，到亚里斯多德首次搞定爱因斯坦所强调的形式逻辑体系。