| 释义 |
‖ reductio|rɪˈdʌktɪəʊ|
Pl. reductiones |rɪdʌktɪˈəʊniːz|.
[L., = reduction.]
Used in various Latin phrases:
1. reductio ad impossibile, reduction to the impossible: a method of proving a proposition by drawing an absurd or impossible conclusion from its contradictory.
1552T. Wilson Rule of Reason (ed. 2) f. 56 The other croked waye (called of the Logicians, Reductio ad impossibile) is a reduccion to that, whiche is impossible. 1843J. S. Mill Logic I. iii. iii. 265 We shall thus discover the error in our generalisation, by what the schoolmen termed a reductio ad impossibile. 1869W. S. Jevons Substitution of Similars 44 This indirect or negative method is closely analogous to the indirect proof, or reductio ad absurdum, so frequently used by Euclid and other mathematicians, and a similar method is employed by the old logicians in the treatment of the syllogisms called Baroko and Bokardo, by the reductio ad impossibile. 1884J. N. Keynes Formal Logic iii. iv. 181 This method of reduction is called Reductio ad impossibile, or Reductio per impossibile, or Deductio ad impossibile, or Deductio ad absurdum. 1962W. & M. Kneale Devel. Logic i. 8 What Aristotle attributed to Zeno was presumably the discovery of the use of the reductio ad impossibile in metaphysics.
2. reductio ad absurdum: reduction to the absurd (see reduction 9 b). Also with superl. reductio ad absurdissimum (the most absurd, the greatest absurdity).
1741I. Watts Improvement of Mind i. xiii. 181 The Respondent may be attack'd either upon a Point of his own Concession, which is call'd Argumentum ex concessis, or by reducing him to an Absurdity, which is call'd Reductio ad absurdum. 1824J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. II. 34 This we admit: and we regard it as a decisive reductio ad absurdum of his own argument. 1865― Exam. Hamilton's Philos. iv. 44 Hegel..has fairly earned the honour..of having logically extinguished transcendental metaphysics by a series of reductiones ad absurdissimum. 1896G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) II. 170 Madame Sarah Grand's position is a reductio ad absurdum of our whole moral system. 1931Times Educ. Suppl. 10 Jan. 9/4 A reductio ad absurdissimum is seen in the fact that an aspirant for employment in a business house, who has actually qualified for exemption from matriculation by virtue of the subjects endorsed on his school certificate, is not infrequently informed that his application cannot be entertained unless he produces the actual matriculation certificate. 1939Canadian Forum July 126/2 It..may prove to be no more than the reductio ad absurdum of his own introspectiveness. 1955Times 23 June 11/3 When the House of Commons regards even nationalized boards as little more than civil servants, and piles a committee on top of their committee we approach the reductio ad absurdum. 1963[see Christocentricity s.v. Christo-]. 1969L. Ruby Art of Making Sense (rev. ed.) viii. 84 Here is a more complex sample of the reductio ad absurdum. 1976Times Lit. Suppl. 3 Dec. 1522/4 Whether the result represents anything more than a reductio ad absurdum of the traditional musicological pastime of theme-spotting. 1977Time 7 Feb. 51/1 Reductio is always ad absurdum. |