Reasoning is a mental process through which some attitudes of yours – premise attitudes – give rise to a new attitude of your – a conclusion attitude. Not all processes of this sort are reasoning, so what further conditions are essential for a process of this sort to be reasoning? A common view is that you must believe that the content of the conclusion attitude is implied by the contents of the premise attitudes. Call this a ‘first-order linking belief’. A first-order linking belief is plausibly a necessary condition for some sorts of reasoning – specifically for theoretical reasoning that concludes in a belief. But it is not a necessary condition for other sorts of reasoning, such as practical reasoning that concludes in an intention. And it is not essential even for reasoning that concludes in a belief: it is not part of what makes a process reasoning.