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 Maarten Maartensz:    Philosophical Dictionary | Filosofisch Woordenboek                      

 R - Reductio ad absurdum

 
Reductio ad absurdum: Reduction to an absurdity. One reduces a statement or set of statements to an absurdity by showing that it deductively entails a contradiction.

It follows logically then that at least one of the statements that deductively entails the contradiction cannot be true.

This is a very fundamental mode of reasoning in mathematics, philosophy, science and elsewhere, simply because it constitutes a logically valid way to prove that something is not so.

 

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Literature:

Heijenoort

 

 Original: Aug 18, 2004                                                Last edited: 12 December 2011.   Top