What is reasoning?

Reasoning is defined very differently depending on the context of the understanding of reason as a form of knowledge. The logical definition is the act of using reason to derive a conclusion from certain premises using a given methodology, and the two most commonly used explicit methods to reach a conclusion are deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. However, within idealist philosophical contexts, reasoning is the mental process which informs our imagination, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings with whatever intelligibility these appear to contain; and thus links our experience with universal meaning. The specifics of the methods of reasoning are of interest to such disciplines as philosophy, logic, psychology, and artificial intelligence.