A method (100) and an apparatus for user assisted deductive reasoning using a plurality of semantic network refinement iterations (102) comprises performing a user assisted query (104) to ascertain at least one valid node from a plurality of nodes of a semantic network, reducing a solution space of the semantic network (106) by disregarding at least one invalid node from the plurality of nodes of the semantic network and pruning the semantic network (108) based on the at least one valid node from the plurality of nodes of the semantic network. Pruning the semantic network (108) further comprises querying a knowledge base (200) to ascertain a plurality of hypothesis and a corresponding plurality of antecedents for the at least one valid node and constructing a refined semantic network (214) based on the plurality of hypothesis and the corresponding plurality of antecedents for the at least one valid node.
