Truism

A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device and is the opposite of falsism.^[1]

In philosophy, a sentence which asserts incomplete truth conditions for a proposition may be regarded as a truism. An example of such a sentence would be: "Under appropriate conditions, the sun rises." Without contextual support – a statement of what those appropriate conditions are – the sentence is true but incontestable. A statement which is true by definition ("All cats are mammals.") would also be considered a truism. This is quite similar to a tautology in which the conclusion of a statement is essentially equivalent to its premise, a statement that is "true by virtue of its logical form alone".^[2]

The word may also be used with a different sense in rhetoric, to disguise the fact that a proposition is really just an opinion. Similarly, stating an accepted truth about life in general can also be called a truism.

See also[edit]

Aphorism Axiom Cliché Platitude Contradiction Dictum Fact

Figure of speech Jacques de la Palice Jenny Holzer Maxim Moral Synthetic proposition Tautology

Look up truism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ "Definition: truism". http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/: Webster's Online Dictionary. Retrieved 2010-03-10. "Noun Base (truism)
   1. An obvious truth. Wordnet.
   2. An undoubted or self-evident truth; a statement which is pliantly true; a proposition needing no proof or argument; -- opposed to falsism. Websters."
2. Jump up^ [1]

Categories:

• Rhetoric
• Philosophical