Defeasible reasoning is a kind of
reasoning that is based on reasons that are
, as opposed to the
indefeasible reasons of deductive logic. Defeasible reasoning is a particular kind of non-demonstrative reasoning, where the reasoning does not produce a full, complete, or final demonstration of a claim, i.e., where fallibility and corrigibility of a conclusion are acknowledged. In other words defeasible reasoning produces a statement or claim. Other kinds of non-demonstrative reasoning are
probabilistic reasoning,
inductive reasoning,
statistical reasoning,
abductive reasoning, and
paraconsistent reasoning. Defeasible reasoning is also a kind of
ampliative reasoning because its conclusions reach beyond the pure meanings of the premises.