Reductio ad absurdum

Reductio ad absurdum is a way to decide if something is true or not. It means to reduce something to an absurdity, which means looking at an idea and seeing what would happen if you took it to its most extreme point. For example, if someone said that it's a good idea to eat as much food as possible, you could reduce this to an absurdity by imagining someone eating everything possible and getting super fat! If you reduce an idea to an absurdity, it means it's probably a bad idea!