Definition of "cogency"

cogency

noun
countable and uncountable, plural cogencies
1. The state of being cogent; the characteristic or quality of being reasonable and persuasive.
  Quotations
  All the enchantment of fancy, and all the cogency of argument, are employed to recommend to the reader his real interest.
  1781, Samuel Johnson, "Addison," in Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, J. Nichols (London), vol. 5, page 156
  A philosophic study of the development of philosophies should be content to seek out the bases and cogencies of philosophies rather than engage upon a nostalgic search for sympathetic doctrines.
  1928, Richard McKeon, "Thomas Aquinas' Doctrine of Knowledge and Its Historical Setting," Speculum, vol. 3, no. 4 (Oct), page 444