destructive sorites

English

Noun

destructive sorites (plural destructive sorites)

1. (logic) A form of reductio ad absurdum which involves the denial of the first of a series of dependent propositions as a consequence of the denial of the last.
   • 1826, Richard Whately, Elements of Logic:

     In a destructive Sorites, you, of course, go back from the denial of the last consequent to the denial of the first antecedent

References

“destructive”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.