Argument
Proof (truth)
Overview
sufficient evidence or a sufficient argument for the truth of a proposition
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Proof (truth) is discussed.
The third rule for the guidance of pure reason in the conduct of a proof is that all transcendental proofs must never be apagogic or indirect, but always ostensive or direct. The direct or ostensive proof not only establishes the truth of the proposition to be proved, but exposes the grounds of its truth; the apagogic, on the other hand, may assure us of the truth of the proposition, but it cannot enable us to…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is
XXXVI. If in any sort of argumentation it is sufficient to use a proposition by itself, and if it is not requisite to add proof to the proposition; but if in any sort of argumentation a proposition is of no power unless proof be added to it; then proof is something distinct from the proposition. For that which can be joined to a thing or separated from it, cannot possibly be the same thing with that to which it is…
Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4
names the idea; states what it is
The proper subject, however, of Logic is Proof. Before we could understand what Proof is, it was necessary to understand what that is to which proof is applicable; what that is which can be a subject of belief or disbelief, of affirmation or denial; what, in short, the different kinds of Propositions assert. This preliminary inquiry we have prosecuted to a definite result. Assertion, in the first place, relates…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
But allow me for one moment to extend the meaning of "prove"; I mean--to prove its worth. Now an idea is not worth much unless the propositions in which it is embodied are true. Accordingly an essential part of the proof of an idea is the proof, either by experiment or by logic, of the truth of the propositions. But it is not essential that this proof of the truth should constitute the first introduction to the…
Alfred North Whitehead, The organisation of thought, educational and scientific
names the idea
This means that there now is a distinctive type of thinking marked off from mere discussion and reflection. It may be called either reasoning or proof. It is reasoning when we think of the regularity of the method for getting at and employing the unquestioned grounds which give validity to other statements.
John Dewey, Essays in Experimental Logic
names the idea; states what it is
Philosophers who discussed Proof (truth)
Related ideas
- Belief
- Harvard University Press
- Argument
- Jurisprudence
- Necessity and sufficiency
- Proof theory
- Mathematics
- Evidence
- Thomas Aquinas
- J. L. Austin
- Knowledge
- Rule of inference
- Rhetoric
- René Descartes
- Science
- Sun
- Truth
- Justification (epistemology)
- Aristotle
- Theorem
- Nicolaus Copernicus
- Meditations on First Philosophy
- Formal system
- Well-formed formula
Place in the tradition
Part of Agnosticism.