Literary notes about arbitrarily (AI summary)
The term "arbitrarily" in literature often signals a lack of systematic reasoning or careful deliberation behind a decision or a designation. It is used to portray instances where differences, boundaries, or choices are imposed without logical justification—such as demarcating a hunted area from a wilderness purely by a drawn line [1] or describing a character who acts out of personal convenience rather than necessity [2]. Philosophical and scientific texts employ it to denote assumptions made solely for the sake of argument, as when a numerical unit is “arbitrarily assumed” in a discussion of measurement [3, 4]. In works of satire and political commentary, the word criticizes actions that are capriciously or unjustly executed, highlighting the inherent randomness in decisions that affect lives and institutions [5, 6].
- Line arbitrarily separates the hunted area from the wilderness area.
— from Ecological Studies of the Timber Wolf in Northeastern Minnesota by L. David Mech - He is a man who arbitrarily consults his own convenience, especially when he’s off with a set of his Wall Street cronies on a summering lark.
— from Left to Themselves: Being the Ordeal of Philip and Gerald by Edward Prime-Stevenson - We cogitate in it merely its relation to an arbitrarily assumed unit, in relation to which it is greater than any number.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - Development of F( x ,) according to powers of x or x - a ; a being a quantity arbitrarily assumed.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - And what had Fate in store for the beautiful, delicate girl whose future had been so arbitrarily settled by two men
— from The Bronze Eagle: A Story of the Hundred Days by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness - The one commands, in the manner the law directs, those who willingly obey; the other, arbitrarily, those who consent not.
— from Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle
