Retortion: Difference between revisions
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'''Retortion''' is spelled "retorsion" in French. The idea of turning an opponent's self-referential contradictions into a reason for rejecting the position is common among Transcendental Thomists, who used various forms of this argument to demonstrate the instability of Kant's epistemology. | '''Retortion''' is spelled "retorsion" in French. The idea of turning an opponent's self-referential contradictions into a reason for rejecting the position is common among Transcendental Thomists, who used various forms of this argument to demonstrate the instability of Kant's epistemology. | ||
== Classical examples == | |||
:; St. Augustine, ''De Trinitate,'' 12-21; ''De Civitate Dei,'' XI, 26 | |||
:: ''Si fallor, sum.'' | |||
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Revision as of 17:15, 18 April 2018
Retortion is the act of identifying a self-referential contradiction in an opponent's position.
So, for example, if I were to write, "No one can type a coherent sentence in English," a thoughtful critic might retort: "But what you just wrote provides evidence against what you claim to be true."
Retortion is spelled "retorsion" in French. The idea of turning an opponent's self-referential contradictions into a reason for rejecting the position is common among Transcendental Thomists, who used various forms of this argument to demonstrate the instability of Kant's epistemology.
Classical examples
- St. Augustine, De Trinitate, 12-21; De Civitate Dei, XI, 26
- Si fallor, sum.
Links
- Moleski: