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Philosophy vocabulary · Logic and Argument

Entail

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ɪnˈteɪl/verbCommon term

In philosophy, entail means: To make something logically necessary: if A entails B, then B must be true whenever A is true.

In Turkish: gerektirmek, içermek

How it is used

A precise logical verb, stronger than suggest or imply in everyday speech. The noun is entailment. Philosophers often say a view entails an unacceptable conclusion and then argue that we should reject the view.

Example sentences

  1. 'Everyone in the room is a student' entails 'Ali, who is in the room, is a student'.

  2. If your theory entails that animals feel no pain, something has gone wrong.

Common collocations

  • logically entail
  • entail a contradiction
  • strictly entail
  • entailment relation
  • inferenceThe step of reasoning from one or more statements to another, or the conclusion that is reached by taking that step.
  • validDescribes an argument whose form guarantees that if all the premises are true, the conclusion must be true as well.
  • necessary conditionA condition that must be met for something to be true or to happen, although meeting it alone may not be enough.
  • conclusionThe statement that an argument tries to establish, supported by the premises that lead up to it.

More terms: Logic and Argument

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