solvitur ambulandophr.
/ˈsɒlvɪtə ambjuːˈlandəʊ/ An appeal to practical experience for the solution of a problem or proof of a statement. Also as n.phr. Also in shortened form ambulando adv. by experience; in the course of things.Originally an allusion to the reported proof by Diogenes the Cynic of the possibility of motion: see Diogenes Laertius VI. 39.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > testing > [noun] > method of
solvitur ambulando1852
quiz1867
test1910
the world > existence and causation > occurrence > [adverb] > in the course of things
ambulando1876
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > knowledge, what is known > experience > [adverb]
expertlyc1420
feelinglyc1450
experimentally1593
on (also upon) the pulse1818
ambulando1876
1814 Artis Logicæ Rudimenta. Accessit Solutio Sophismatum 67 Ineptum est hoc Sophisma 1. Quia solvitur ambulando; quod fecit Diogenes.]
1852 A. H. Clough Let. Mar. in Poems & Prose Rem. (1869) I. 174 It is not..simply one's business in life to ‘envisager’ the most remarkable problems of humanity... Still we may be well assured that only time can work out any sort of answer to them for us. ‘Solvitur ambulando.’
1863 J. Conington tr. Horace Odes p. xxv How easily the ‘solvitur ambulando’ of an artist like Mr. Tennyson may disturb a whole chain of ingenious reasoning on the possibilities of things.
1863 C. Reade Hard Cash I. viii. 226 To the à priori reasoners..he replied by building an engine..hooking on eight carriages, and rattling off up an incline. ‘Solvitur ambulando,’ quoth Stephenson the stout hearted.
1876 W. James in Nation 8 June 369/1 The ultimate decision of which side is right and which wrong shall only be reached ambulando or at the final integration of things, if at all.
1906 F. W. Maitland L. Stephen xvii. 366 He knew that he would have to proceed empirically. Solvitur ambulando—the motto of the philosophic tramp—had also to be the motto of the editor.
1930 J. Laird Knowl., Belief & Opinion iv. 103 Perfectly convincing evidence might turn up, so to say, ambulando, when we are engaged in something irrelevant.
1934 A. Toynbee Study of Hist. III. 182 A modern Western philosopher applies the historic solvitur ambulando to the ancient sophism of the Eleatics.
1955 Times 30 Aug. 9/2 To what extent and for what purposes is it justifiable to transform personality by surgery, psychological techniques, or the administration of drugs? In so far as matters of this kind have been the subject of conscious policy in the past solvitur ambulando has been the motto.
1957 G. Ryle in C. A. Mace Brit. Philos. in Mid-Cent. 256 The assimilation of language to chess reminds us of what we knew ambulando all along.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online January 2018).
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