REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Reductio ad absurdum

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Reductio ad absurdum

noun

(reduction to the absurd) a disproof by showing that the consequences of the proposition are absurd; or a proof of a proposition by showing that its negation leads to a contradiction. Synonym: reductio.

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Etymology of 'Reductio ad absurdum'

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"Reductio ad absurdum" Quotes from Famous Books

... read the books,' is supposed to acknowledge (so Cratylus). And Protagoras, in the speech attributed to him, never says that he has been misunderstood: he rather seems to imply that the absoluteness of sensation at each instant was to be found in his words. He is only indignant at the 'reductio ad absurdum' devised by Socrates for his 'homo mensura,' which Theodorus also considers to ...

— Theaetetus • Plato

Words linked to "Reductio ad absurdum" : reductio, refutation, falsification, disproof