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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

if-thenism en · NOUN

Etymology

From if-then + -ism.

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) The doctrine that all mathematical statements are conditional in form, meaning they can be expressed in the form "p implies q", (i.e. if p then q).
    • We now come to the difficulty that caused Russell himself to abandon 'if-thenism'. 1968, Bertrand Russell; philosopher of the century, page 287:
    • In this chapter we shall consider two versions of if-thenism corresponding to two different ways of understanding conditional statements. 1979, Introduction to the philosophy of mathematics, page 11:
    • The final formalist position we shall consider, deductivism, or if-thenism as it is sometimes called, is suggested by earlier remarks on the game of pure logic. 1994, Understanding the infinite, page 185: