REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM • DICCIONARIO INGLES.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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"Reductio ad absurdum" Quotes from Famous Books

... point them out to me. But at present it only appears to me like a gigantic mystification, enabling those who hold richly endowed posts to justify themselves to the world, and to keep the patronage of these emoluments in their own hands. Supposing, as a reductio ad absurdum, that some wealthy individual were to endow an institution in order that the members of it might count the number of threads in carpets. One can imagine a philosophical defence being made of the pursuit. A man might say that it was above all things necessary ...

— The Upton Letters • Arthur Christopher Benson

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... on page 138. Mr. Ericson should drill himself more thoroughly in the principles of syntax. Other essays of this series are included in the present issue. "On Contentment" gives an illustration which we fear will injure Mr. Ericson's contention more than it will aid it. It is the reductio ad absurdum of the typical ...

— Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 • Howard Phillips Lovecraft

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... to be consistent? The dullard and the doctrinaire, the tedious people who carry out their principles to the bitter end of action, to the reductio ad absurdum of practice. Not I. Like Emerson, I write over the door of my library the word 'Whim.' Besides, my article is really a most salutary and valuable warning. If it is attended to, there may be a new Renaissance ...

— Intentions • Oscar Wilde

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