"Apodictic", also spelled "apodeictic" (Ancient Greek: ἀποδεικτικός, "capable of demonstration"), is an adjectival expression from Aristotelean logic that refers to propositions that are demonstrably, necessarily or self-evidently true.[1] Apodicticity or apodixis is the corresponding abstract noun, referring to logical certainty.

Apodictic propositions contrast with assertoric propositions, which merely assert that something is (or is not) true, and with problematic propositions, which assert only the possibility of something's being true. Apodictic judgments are clearly provable or logically certain. For instance, "Two plus two equals four" is apodictic, because it is true by definition. "Chicago is larger than Omaha" is assertoric. "A corporation could be wealthier than a country" is problematic. In Aristotelian logic, "apodictic" is opposed to "dialectic", as scientific proof is opposed to philosophical reasoning. Kant contrasted "apodictic" with "problematic" and "assertoric" in the Critique of Pure Reason, on page A70/B95.[2]

Apodictic a priorism

Hans Reichenbach, one of the founders of logical positivism, offered a modified version of Immanuel Kant's a priorism by distinguishing between apodictic a priorism and constitutive a priorism.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Dictionary definitions of apodictic, from dictionary.com, including material from the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Random House, Inc. (2006), The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company, and WordNet 3.0, Princeton University 2006.
  2. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Apodictic" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 183.
  3. ↑ Mormann, Thomas (2012). "Toward a Theory of the Pragmatic a Priori: From Carnap to Lewis and Beyond". In Creath, Richard (ed.). Rudolf Carnap and the Legacy of Logical Empiricism. Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook. Vol. 16 (2012. ed.). Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media. p. 116. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-3929-1_7. ISBN 978-94-007-3928-4. S2CID 170999667. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  • The dictionary definition of apodictic at Wiktionary
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