Literary notes about invalidate (AI summary)
In literature, the term "invalidate" is employed as a tool to undermine, nullify, or discredit evidences, theories, or doctrines. Authors use it to question the reliability of evidence—as Suetonius does by implying that an unknown author may invalidate the credibility of certain verses [1]—or to affirm the strength of conclusions despite potential challenges, as Sidgwick suggests [2]. Santayana argues that moral values can be weakened or even invalidated by the very consolations meant to uphold them [3], while others, like Jomini [4] and Durkheim [5, 6], discuss its role in dismissing counter-evidences or established theories. Additionally, in legal and philosophical debates, as seen in Hume’s and Rousseau's works [7, 8], "invalidate" serves to question the legitimacy of contracts or decrees, reaffirming its versatility across various contexts in literature.
- The same considerations must likewise invalidate the evidence of the verses, and the rather, because the author is unknown.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius - § 1 ) will not, I think, tend to invalidate the conclusions of the present chapter.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick - This is the heavy price paid for mythical consolations, that they invalidate the moral values they are intended to emphasise.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - Even if the number of battles gained by skillful maneuvers did not exceed the number due to accident, it would not invalidate my assertion.
— from The Art of War by baron de Antoine Henri Jomini - This theory was the more readily accepted because no fact of experience could invalidate it.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - IV But on another point the new facts at our disposal invalidate the theories of Smith.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - If the secret direction of the intention, said every man of sense, could invalidate a contract; where is our security?
— from An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume - This injustice was altogether ill-conceived, and was alone enough to invalidate the decrees of a body to which all its members were not admitted.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
