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Webster 1913 Edition


Demonstration

Demˊon-stra′tion

,
Noun.
[L.
demonstratio
: cf. F.
démonstration
.]
1.
The act of demonstrating; an exhibition; proof; especially, proof beyond the possibility of doubt; indubitable evidence, to the senses or reason.
Those intervening ideas which serve to show the agreement of any two others are called “proofs;” and where agreement or disagreement is by this means plainly and clearly perceived, it is called
demonstration
.
Locke.
Did your letters pierce the queen to any
demonstration
of grief?
Shakespeare
Loyal
demonstrations
toward the prince.
Prescott.
3.
(Anat.)
The exhibition and explanation of a dissection or other anatomical preparation.
4.
(Mil.) a decisive exhibition of force, or a movement indicating an attack.
5.
(Logic)
The act of proving by the syllogistic process, or the proof itself.
6.
(Math.)
A course of reasoning showing that a certain result is a necessary consequence of assumed premises; – these premises being definitions, axioms, and previously established propositions.
Direct demonstration
, or
Positive demonstration
,
(Logic & Math.)
,
one in which the correct conclusion is the immediate sequence of reasoning from axiomatic or established premises
; – opposed to
Indirect demonstration
, or
Negative demonstration
(called also
reductio ad absurdum
), in which the correct conclusion is an inference from the demonstration that any other hypothesis must be incorrect.

Webster 1828 Edition


Demonstration

DEMONSTRATION

, n.
1.
The act of demonstrating, or of exhibiting certain proof.
2.
The highest degree of evidence; certain proof exhibited, or such proof as establishes a fact or proposition beyond a possibility of doubt, or as shows the contrary position to be absurd or impossible.
3.
Indubitable evidence of the senses, or of reason; evidence which satisfies the mind of the certainty of a fact or proposition. Thus we hold that the works of nature exhibit demonstration of the existence of a God.
4.
In logic, a series of syllogisms, all whose premises are either definitions, self-evident truths, or propositions already established.
5.
Show; exhibition.
6.
In anatomy, the exhibition of parts dissected.

Definition 2024


démonstration

démonstration

French

Noun

démonstration f (plural démonstrations)

  1. demonstration (act of showing and explaining)

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