apodictic

The Greek term apodeiktikós passed into Latin as apodictĭcus, which came to our language What apodictic. The concept is used in the field of philosophy to qualify what is demonstrably and unconditionally valid or true.

Regarding your etymology, we note that it is composed of the prefix support ("Far, out, apart"), from the verb deiknumai (which can be translated as "indicate or show") and the suffix -tico (which in this case provides the meaning of "relative to"). One possible interpretation of this fusion of components is that the apodictic is something that stands out and can be removed from its environment, as it is something undeniable.

The notion of apodictic appears frequently in the aristotelian logic, as the doctrine developed from the plays from Aristotle. For this outstanding philosopher of the Ancient Greece, a proposition is apodictic when it is evidently valid or forcibly invalid. This is how he differentiates these expressions from assertive propositions (used to ascertain whether a thing is or is not) and of the problematic propositions (They reflect the possibility that a thing turns out to be true).

We can understand the differences between these types of proposition through examples. The statement "Four plus three equals seven" it is apodictic: it is necessarily valid. It does not tolerate a contradiction since "Four plus three" It will always be "Equal to seven". In the framework of logic, there is no possibility of discussing the validity of the statement since it carries a necessary truth and is self-evident.

Instead, a phrase like "Everest is higher than Aconcagua" result assertoric because it is limited to affirming that something "it is". A problematic proposition, on the other hand, is "A family can have more members than a town": indicates a possibility.

Aristotelian logic also includes the concept of dialectical, as opposed to apodictic, as well as something reasonable or probable is opposed to a scientific proof. We understand by dialectics to the technique of conversation, and this same meaning has a branch of philosophy that has had a great development in history.

At first, it was a method of argumentation similar to what today we call logic. Throughout the 18th century, this word received a new meaning, since it began to be defined as "the theory of the opposites in the concepts or in the things, as well as the identification and the overcoming of the same ». From a more schematic point of view, it is possible to define dialectics as that discourse in which a given tradition or conception is opposed (giving rise to a thesis), and the exposition of contradictions and problems (a antithesis).

The Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant published in 1781 a work entitled «Critique of Pure Reason«, The most important of his career and with a second edition six years later, in which he gives a clear distinction between assertive, problematic and apodictic. First, it points out that the modality of a trial does not contribute anything to its content; it is a very particular function of these in which they weigh more the ratio, quality and quantity.

With regard to problematic judgments, Kant defines them as those that do not carry the obligation to affirm or deny. Assertorists, for their part, are the judgments in which it is considered as real or true. Lastly, there are the apodictics, whose definition coincides with that set out in the previous paragraphs.

Apodictic, on the other hand, can be a argumentative style that an individual develops when he expresses a judgment as a categorical truth, even though it is not necessary to do so.