Literary notes about Tenable (AI summary)
In literature, the term "tenable" is frequently used to evaluate whether a theory, argument, or position can be sustained upon scrutiny. Authors apply it to ideas that are logically or morally defensible, as when philosophers propose positions that are "logically tenable" despite their lack of practical allure [1, 2, 3]. At the same time, the word is employed in military and strategic contexts to describe physical positions that can be held against opposition—illustrated by references to fortifications that become indefensible under sustained attack [4, 5, 6]. Whether addressing abstract notions or concrete postures, "tenable" conveys the quality of being reasonably supportable and resistant to challenge [7, 8, 9].
- Like all sceptical hypotheses, it is logically tenable, but uninteresting.
— from The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell - " If this theory is to be logically tenable, self-evidence must not consist merely in the fact that we believe a proposition.
— from The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell - Professor Bickell's assumption involves no inherent improbability, runs counter to no ascertained facts, and is therefore perfectly tenable.
— from The Sceptics of the Old Testament: Job - Koheleth - Agur by Emile Joseph Dillon - It was obvious that, with the walls shot to ruins as they had been, the place was no longer tenable against Maurice's superior forces.
— from History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce — Complete (1584-1609) by John Lothrop Motley - Colonel Mercer, the commanding officer, was killed; and, in a few hours, the place was declared by the engineers to be no longer tenable.
— from The Life of George Washington: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions by John Marshall - If this were continued, the barricade was no longer tenable.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - But, frankly, none of these hypotheses appear to me to be tenable; the mystery does not lie so plainly on the surface.
— from In Jeopardy by Van Tassel Sutphen - That they feared an open attack by day and dreaded the tiger by night was the only tenable theory that Grenville could devise.
— from As It Was in the Beginning by Philip Verrill Mighels - The suggested connection with the word Sâdhana as meaning an agent (Lassen) and its application to the Kshatrapas of Gujarát , are not tenable.
— from History of GujarátGazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Volume I, Part I. by James M. Campbell
