Analytic Tautologies
Pronunciation: アナリティック・トートロジーズ (Anaritikku Tōtorojīzu)
Part of Speech: noun phrase
Formal Definition:
Propositions that are true solely by virtue of their meaning and logical form, independent of any empirical verification or observation. Analytic tautologies are considered logically necessary and self-validating, since denying them would result in a contradiction.
They combine two related ideas:
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Analytic truth: statements true by definition (e.g., “All bachelors are unmarried men”).
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Tautology: a logical truth that holds under all interpretations (e.g., “If it’s raining, then it’s raining”).
Examples:
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“All triangles have three sides.”
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“If something is red, then it has a color.”
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“A bachelor is an unmarried man.”
Contrast:
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Synthetic statements depend on facts or experience (e.g., “The sky is blue”).
Etymology:
From analytic (Greek analusis, “a breaking up”) + tautology (Greek tauto, “the same” + logos, “speech”).
Plain Language Definition:
A statement that’s true just because of what the words mean, not because of anything you’d have to go check in the real world. You can tell it’s true just by understanding the words.
Examples:
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“All squares have four sides.”
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“A mother is a female parent.”
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“If it’s raining, then it’s raining.”
They’re called analytic because their truth comes from meaning, and tautologies because they can’t ever be false. These kinds of statements don’t tell you anything new; they just make clear what’s already built into the definition of the words.
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