reductio

Noun

Meaning

(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

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Examples

Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game. G. H. Hardy

Burke imitated Bolingbroke's style and ideas in a reductio ad absurdum of his arguments for atheistic rationalism, demonstrating their absurdity. Source: Internet

Buddhapālita (470–550) has been understood as the originator of the 'prāsaṅgika' approach which is based on critiquing essentialism only through reductio ad absurdum arguments. Source: Internet

However, Abelard in his Dialectica made a reductio ad absurdum argument against the idea that the copula can express existence. Source: Internet

Euclid stipulated this so that he could construct a reductio ad absurdum proof that the two numbers' common measure is in fact the greatest. Source: Internet

Proof by contradiction is also known as indirect proof, apagogical argument, proof by assuming the opposite, and reductio ad impossibilem. Source: Internet

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