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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]).
  1. “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
  2. This compromise is effected by the doctrine of postulation.
    — from Pragmatism by D. L. (David Leslie) Murray
  3. Both postulation and verification, then, are applicable to the problems of religion as of science.
    — from Pragmatism by D. L. (David Leslie) Murray
  4. Postulation and the verifying of postulates is thus a process of reciprocal discrimination and selection.
    — from Pragmatism by D. L. (David Leslie) Murray
  5. 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
  6. But such esoteric combinations are not at all necessary for the postulation of wildly variant life forms.
    — from Cum Grano Salis by Randall Garrett
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. This is a postulation by no means clear.
    — from Curiosities of Medical Experience by J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen
  10. 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
  11. The postulation of 'causes' is verified by its success.
    — from Pragmatism by D. L. (David Leslie) Murray
  12. 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

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