Rationality in drawing inferences means that the conclusion of an argument must follow from the premises and must not go beyond them; it must be true if the premises are true. The rational force of an argument may then be measured by the extent to which the evidence in it entails the conclusion. In valid deductive inferences this rational entailment must constantly hold true. But reasoning cannot be confined exclusively to deductive modes of argument, as the need often arises to draw a general conclusion from a limited body of evidence. Arguments proceeding from a certain number of particulars to a general conclusion do not follow the strict rules of logical entailment and rationality. In other words, they are not analyzable, after the fashion of deductive arguments, into premises and a conclusion; rather, they constitute a perception of relations that are not wholly subject to the rules of rational, deductive validity.
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