(1) The act of deriving a conclusion from a premise or premises. (2) The conclusion derived from the premises. (3) (In Idealist Philosophy): a method of thinking that employs logic with an understanding of the psychological workings of the mind in its situational context. VT sometimes speaks of his approach as a method of implication in the third sense, something more than mere deduction or induction, but including both of them. See Bahnsen, 172-73.