error, such as a misspelled word. Another type of absurdity, called "evaluative absurdity", arises when a legal provision, despite appropriate spelling and grammar, "makes no substantive sense". An example would be a statute that mistakenly provided for a winning rather than losing party to pay the other side's reasonable attorney's fees. In order to stay within the remit of textualism and not reach further into purposivism, the doctrine is restricted by two limiting principles: "...the absurdity and the injustice of applying the provision to the case would be so monstrous, that all mankind would, without hesitation, unite in rejecting the application" and the absurdity must be correctable "...by modifying the text in relatively simple ways". This doctrine is seen as being consistent with examples of historical common sense. Logic and computer science Reductio ad absurdum Reductio ad absurdum, reducing to an absurdity, is a method of proof in polemics, logic and mathematics, whereby assuming that a proposition is true leads to absurdity; a proposition is assumed to be true and this is used to deduce a proposition known to be false, so the original proposition must have been false. It is also an argumentation style in polemics, whereby a position is demonstrated to be false, or "absurd", by assuming it and reasoning to reach something known to be believed as false or to violate common sense; it is used by Plato to argue against other philosophical positions. An absurdity constraint is used in the logic of model transformations. Constant in logic The "absurdity constant", often denoted by the symbol ⊥, is used in formal logic. It represents the concept of falsum, an elementary logical proposition, denoted by a constant "false" in several programming languages. Rule in logic The absurdity rule is a rule in logic, as used by Patrick Suppes in Logic, methodology and philosophy of science: Proceedings. See also Doctrine of Absurdity Illogical Nonsense Non sequitur (literary device) Ridiculous Silliness Stupidity The Moon is made of green cheese References External links Concepts in the philosophy of language Existentialist concepts Popular culture