Reductio ad absurdum (Latin: "reduction to absurdity"; pl.: reductiones ad absurdum), also known as argumentum ad absurdum (Latin: "argument to absurdity", pl.: argumenta ad absurdum), is a common form of argument which seeks to demonstrate that a statement is true by showing that a false, untenable, or absurd result follows from its denial, or in turn to demonstrate that a statement is false by showing that a false, untenable, or absurd result follows from its acceptance.
First recognized and studied in classical Greek philosophy (the Latin term derives from the Greek ἐις ἀτοπον ἀπαγωγή or eis atopon apagoge, "reduction to the impossible", for example in Aristotle's Prior Analytics), this technique has been used throughout history in both formal mathematical and philosophical reasoning, as well as informal debate.
The "absurd" conclusion of a reductio ad absurdum argument can take a range of forms:
The Earth cannot be flat, otherwise we would find people falling off the edge.
This dead orchestra Play on instruments Strung with the fibres Of my mind And skeletons dance They have no voice And no complaint But I am still flesh And will not serve You vampire fools Bringing you life By invoking dead I'm tired of telling stories With this ghostvoice of mine So you can say you don't Believe in ghosts You drink me animal Wasted on my madness Leaving me blank and empty But tonight I'm Houdini Gonna kill my shadow Penetrate your sanctum See your loss Through your eyes And laugh as two You not knowing why
“Trump Is Proposing a 10% Tariff ... The reductio ad absurdum of this mindset appears in the Tax Foundation ’s model, which not only refuses to consider how tariffs might affect economic activity, but also ignores the value of any tariffs collected ... .
The reductio ad absurdum of the view that athletes should be allowed to “self-identify” into whichever sex category they like is that it legitimises a situation in which a man can beat up a woman in ...
However, it’s difficult to take such gatekeeping personally when you’re watching Elizabeth Bowen dismissed by her peers as a “reductio ad absurdum” of Henry James, or seeing Edna O’Brien described as ...
Reductio ad absurdum, the European Court of Human Rights – which is not an EU institution and therefore still holds sway in Britain – recently opened the floodgates to all manner of climate change ...
To the average Right-wing columnist, doomed to banal drudgery for most of our lives, they offer the only grand hazard we have ever encountered ... He is to statesmen what comedians are to great actors, a sort of reductio ad absurdum of them ... .
Whitehouse added ... “Donald Trump is the reductio ad absurdum of this rewriting of history, culminating in the big lie that he won the 2020 election.” ... administration has initiated, Romm added, saying.
It proceeds as a question. why are men better comedians than women? ... I could go on for pages ... Women can be superlative actors, but comedians are not actors; they are a sort of reductio ad absurdum of them ... Added to this is society’s oppression of my sex.
We have reached the reductio ad absurdum where, when asked on the BBC “would membership of the single market boost economic growth?”, Starmer replied “no” ... ads, and content funded by outside parties.
No rule of law ... “The Western establishment’s constant reductio ad absurdum, conflating pro-ceasefire and anti-genocide activism with anti-Semitism, is exactly the kind of thing that the establishment has been doing for years to ram through its agenda.
The Western establishment’s constant reductio ad absurdum, conflating pro-ceasefire and anti-genocide activism with anti-Semitism, is exactly the kind of thing that the establishment has been doing for years to ram through its agenda ... .
“This edition of Le Monde d’Hermès,” said Hermès artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas, “embarks on a madcap attempt at an inventory, a reductio ad absurdum of the inexhaustible nature of the ...
Sign upNewsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties ... Now, wait for it, the reductio ad absurdum of Labour’s position is this.
Advertisement. That prompts the question ... He used the Socratic reductio ad absurdum of Barack Obama's drone strike on Anwar al-Awlaki, and the second one on his son, to suggest that a politically motivated prosecutor could charge him with murder ... .
This document cannot be more welcome! ... This Declaration does the same and acknowledges the pivotal role of this Declaration in all discourse of human rights ... Obviously, this argument can be perverted by some kind of "reductio ad absurdum."
Then and now...Sure, it’s a reductio ad absurdum argument, but it illustrates the point that if Lloyds is a sustainable generator of high levels of surplus cash, sooner or later the share price will have to rise to reflect its fundamental value ... .
