Argument
Reductio ad absurdum
Overview
form of argument in informal logic
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Sometimes the same thing is knowingly done, for the purpose of showing the falsity of the assumption; which is called a _reductio ad absurdum_. In such cases, the reasoning is as follows: _a_ is a mark of _b_, and _b_ of _c_; now if _c_ were also a mark of _d_, _a_ would be a mark of _d_; but _d_ is known to be a mark of the absence of _a_; consequently _a_…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic
States what Reductio ad absurdum is.
But there is a confusion among them about knowledge; they are uncertain whether it is an accident to each of the atoms which form the knowing aggregate, or whether it belongs only to one atom. Both views can be disproved by a reductio ad absurdum, when the following facts are pointed out to them. Generally metals and stones have a peculiar colour, which is strongly pronounced, but disappears when they are pulverised.
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
States what Reductio ad absurdum is; names Reductio ad absurdum.
There is something a little baffling in much of the current discussion regarding the reference of ideas to facts. The not uncommon assumption is that there was a satisfactory and consistent theory of their relation in existence prior to the somewhat impertinent intrusion of a functional and practical interpretation of them.
John Dewey, Essays in Experimental Logic
Close in meaning to Reductio ad absurdum; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Reductio ad absurdum
- Edmund Burke
- Je Tsongkhapa
- Zeno of Elea
- William of Conches
- Leo Strauss
- Parmenides
- David Chalmers
- Bhāviveka
- Lewis White Beck
- J. J. C. Smart
- Jñānagarbha
- Paul Feyerabend
- Colin Murray Turbayne
- Euclid of Megara
- Buddhapālita
- Hippasus
- Nathan Salmón
- Frithjof Bergmann
- Gaunilo of Marmoutiers
Related ideas
- Flat Earth
- Robert L. Holmes
- Argument
- Homer
- Integer
- Vaibhāṣika
- Negation
- Intuitionistic logic
- Ancient Greek philosophy
- Law of noncontradiction
- Law of excluded middle
- Latin
- Rational number
- Nagarjuna
- Xenophanes
- Plato
- Sorites paradox
- Euclid's Elements
- Prima facie
- Q.E.D.
- Rule of inference
- Sequent calculus
- Truth table
- Abhidharma
Place in the tradition
Part of Buddhist philosophy.