apodeictic

English

Alternative forms

• apodictic

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀποδεικτικός (apodeiktikós). Compare Latin apodicticus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌapəˈdaɪk.tɪk/

Adjective

apodeictic (not comparable)

1. Affording proof; demonstrative.
2. Incontrovertible; demonstrably true or certain.
3. (logic) Of the characteristic feature of a proposition that is necessary (or impossible): perfectly certain (or inconceivable) or incontrovertibly true (or false); self-evident.
   • 1855, John Miller Dow Meiklejohn (translator), 1787, Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, 2nd Edition,

     Thus, moreover, the principles of geometry- for example, that "in a triangle, two sides together are greater than the third," are never deduced from general conceptions of line and triangle, but from intuition, and this a priori, with apodeictic certainty.

   • 1896, Arthur Schopenhauer, translated by Thomas Bailey Saunders, The Art of Controversy, published 1831:

     Aristotle does, indeed, distinguish between (1) Logic, or Analytic, as the theory or method of arriving at true or apodeictic conclusions; and (2) Dialectic as the method of arriving at conclusions that are accepted or pass current[ly] as true,...

   • 2009, Jonathan Dancy, Ernest Sosa, Matthias Steup, A Companion to Epistemology:

     Descartes sought certainty in the existence of God grounded in apodeictic demonstrations.

Antonyms

• anapodeictic

Derived terms

• apodeictically

Related terms

• apodeixis

Translations

incontrovertibly true or false

• Portuguese: apodíctico (pt), apodítico (pt)
• Spanish: apodíctico (es)

See also

• assertoric