What is reasonable?

Reasonable (persons) have always the tendency to believe that humanity is just like them, in which point they are not reasonable, life itself undertakes to disillusion them (Andre Maurois). This paper will use a few diverse views and situations in an attempt to define core elements of this statement that may help in explaining its concepts and possibly help to identify any “truths” in them.
The word “reasonable” is defined as an apparent property of a proposition that without further evidence seems to be logical and possibly true and correct (The Dictionary of Psychology). Pragmatism, a philosophical tradition, emphasizes the conventional character of the concepts and beliefs with which we seek to understand the world. Pragmatic ethics suggest that thought is essentially goal-directed in a way that makes the refinement of the control we exercise over how we act integral to achieving any cognitive goal such as that of truth. The pragmatic maxim is a theory of meaning, which i...