Philosophy 101          Inroduction to Philosophy     Group Writing Projects        Argument strategies     (Reductio ad absurdum)

Let's say your main claim or thesis statement is the following:  "Abortion is always morally wrong." This is hopefully what will be proven, demonstated, supported, or argued for in the body of your paper. One way to do this is to use a reductio-ad-absurdum argument which goes like this:
  1. We assume that the negation or denial of our main claim is true. In this case, it means we assume that the statement "Abortion is not always morally wrong" is
true.
  2. Then we show that accepting this statement leads to some absurd (untrue) conclusion. In this case, it might look like this:

       (a) If abortion is not always morally wrong, then some killings of innocent fetuses are morally acceptable.
       (b) But it is absurd to claim that some killings of innocent fetuses could be morally acceptable.
_________________________________________________
       (c) Therefore, abortion is always morally wrong.

 3. Notice that the support for the thesis statement (c ) depends on how well the reader accepts the absurdity or untruth of the statement that some killings of innocent fetuses could be morally acceptable. In this argument it is merely asserted; clearly, if you were writing a paper, you would want to provide good reasons for showing the absurdity. Here's a quick summary of the reductio argument:

1. I want to show that A is true.
2. I start by assuming that not A (the denial of A) is true.
3. But if we accept not A as true , it leads to an absurdity.
4. Therefore, A must be true.


Writing Project Internet Resources Page
Communication and Humanities Subject Resources Page

                              MCC Home | Comm/Humanities Home | Philosophy Home | Faculty Pages | On-line Courses | Courses |
                              Student Essays | Area Philosophy Departments | Philosophy Resources | Philosophy of Technology |
                              Philosophy of Education | Philosophy and Multiculturalism | Philosophy and Learning College | Web
                              Authoring Resources | Libraries |

                                  Metropolitan Community College
                                          Omaha, Nebraska

Last revision:  April 22, 2001
Please send any comments to Frank Edler fedler@mccneb.edu