Literary notes about Postulation (AI summary)
The term "postulation" in literature is often employed to denote an assumption or a foundational hypothesis that underpins further argument or theory. It may serve as the very essence of a belief system, as when it is described as the core of religious thought ([1]), or as a doctrine that facilitates compromise ([2]). In scientific and philosophical discussions, its use spans from introducing constructs that demand verification ([3], [4]) to critiquing unsupported assumptions, whether in matters of theoretical biology ([5], [6]) or even in delineating aesthetic judgments ([7]). The word frequently encapsulates the act of assuming certain premises—sometimes controversially, as when it is seen as a retreat from debate ([8]) or an unsubstantiated leap in reasoning ([9])—highlighting its versatile role in bridging abstract theory with empirical or doctrinal verification ([10], [11], [12]).
- “This postulation,” says a close thinker, “is the very foundation and essence of religion.
— from The Religious SentimentIts Source and Aim: A Contribution to the Science andPhilosophy of Religion by Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison) Brinton - This compromise is effected by the doctrine of postulation.
— from Pragmatism by D. L. (David Leslie) Murray - Both postulation and verification, then, are applicable to the problems of religion as of science.
— from Pragmatism by D. L. (David Leslie) Murray - Postulation and the verifying of postulates is thus a process of reciprocal discrimination and selection.
— from Pragmatism by D. L. (David Leslie) Murray - It will thus be seen that the postulation of two different irritabilities in the shoot and in the root is wholly unnecessary and unwarranted by facts.
— from Life Movements in Plants, Volume II by Jagadis Chandra Bose - But such esoteric combinations are not at all necessary for the postulation of wildly variant life forms.
— from Cum Grano Salis by Randall Garrett - There is, however, a fourth aspect of ugliness, and that is the esoteric postulation of the value "ugly" by the creator.
— from Nietzsche and Art by Anthony M. (Anthony Mario) Ludovici - The postulation by him of molecular force at this point, is virtually an abandonment of the whole controversy.
— from Life: Its True Genesis by Horatius Flaccus - This is a postulation by no means clear.
— from Curiosities of Medical Experience by J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen - This is the origin of the modern scientific concept of matter and of ether, namely they are the outcome of this insistent habit of postulation.
— from The Concept of NatureThe Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919 by Alfred North Whitehead - The postulation of 'causes' is verified by its success.
— from Pragmatism by D. L. (David Leslie) Murray - Religion begins with the postulation of powerful agents whom man can placate.
— from The Next Step in Religion: An Essay toward the Coming Renaissance by Roy Wood Sellars