adjective
- of, relating to, or employing a method of proof in which a proposition is demonstrated by showing that its negation leads to a contradiction or absurdity
Usage: formal; logic and mathematics
Examples
- The mathematician used an apagogic argument to prove that the square root of two is irrational.
- In apagogic reasoning, we assume the opposite of what we want to prove and derive a contradiction.
- The apagogic method is common in formal logic and theoretical mathematics.
- Her apagogic proof elegantly demonstrated the impossibility of the proposed solution.