incommensurability

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“
We exclude from deliberation things Eternal, like the Kosmos, or the incommensurability of the side and the diagonal of a square; also things mutable, that are regulated by necessity, by nature, or by chance; things out of our power; also final ends of action, for we deliberate only about the means to ends.

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Definitions (2)

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  1. The property of being incommensurable. Aristotle mentions the incommensurability of the diagonal of a square to its side, and gives a hint of the manner in which it was demonstrated. Reid, Intellectual Powers, vi. 7.

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Examples (27)

  • To rectify the problems confronting global trade, the leaders at the G20 summit will be faced with the conflict that has troubled statesmen for the centuries: the incommensurability between a nation's domestic and its international experience and obligations. —  Council on Hemispheric Affairs
  • I have a particular fondness for instances illustrating the incommensurability of different reactions to political events, examples of how different people, aligned at different points of the political spectrum, see things so differently that debate or discussion is not likely to effect any changes of mind. —  The Volokh Conspiracy
  • I have a particular fondness for instances illustrating the incommensurability of different reactions to political events, examples of how different people, aligned at different points of the political spectrum, see things ... —  Overlawyered
  • And as soon as you try to get into the nitty-gritty details of the scientific debate, comparing for example FDA attorney John Sheehan's 69-page anti-raw milk PowerPoint presentation with the über-crunchy Weston A. Price Foundation's 71-page "point-by-point rebuttal," you do indeed get the sense that you're witnessing an ideological incommensurability along the lines of Aristotle-Galileo, —  AFF Doublethink Online
  • The crowd proceeded to stand throughout the show, despite the utter incommensurability between the location of the stage, the seating arrangements, and the ostensible purpose of rising. —  Montreal Weekend Playlist
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Etymologies (1)

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  1. = French incommensurabilité = Spanish inconmensurabilidad = Portuguese incommensurabilidade = Italian incommensurabilità, from incommensurable; see -bility.
 

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