A logical extreme is a useful, though sometimes
fallacious,
rhetorical device
In rhetoric, a rhetorical device, persuasive device, or stylistic device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a perspective, ...
for the disputation of propositions. Quite simply, a
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...
al extreme is the relevant statement of an extreme or preposterous position that is consistent with the proposition in question. Therefore, as the logically extreme position is both relevant and untenable, it has succeeded in calling the proposition into question, at least in its stated form. An example is in Basil Liddell Hart's essay ''Armed Forces and the Art of War: Armies in The New Cambridge Modern History'':
See also
* ''
Reductio ad absurdum
In logic, (Latin for "reduction to absurdity"), also known as (Latin for "argument to absurdity") or ''apagogical argument'', is the form of argument that attempts to establish a claim by showing that the opposite scenario would lead to absur ...
''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Logical Extreme
Logic