On the one hand, we have certain intuitions about which deductive inferences are valid; on the other hand we have rules of inference. Confronted with an intuitively valid inference, we check whether it accords to the rules we already accept. If it does not, we might reject the inference as invalid. If, however, our intuition that the purported inference is valid is stronger than our confidence that our logical rules are adequate, we might consider amending the rules. This soon leads to a complicated process. We have to take into account that the rules must remain coherent and not too complicated to apply. In logic, we want the rules to be, for example, topic neutral, i.e., applicable to inferences (as far as possible) independent of specific subject matter. On the other hand, we also want to extract as much information from premises as possible, so we do not want to risk being too cautious in accepting rules. In this process we make adjustments on both sides, slowly bringing our judgments concerning validity into a reflective equilibrium with the rules for valid inferences until we finally get a stable system of accepted rules. (The term  “reflective equilibrium” was introduced by John Rawls (1971) for Goodman’s technique.)