Word.ws English Dictionary

kettle logic

kettle logic noun: a rhetorical device involving the use of multiple arguments that are inconsistent with each other.

Noun

kettle logic (uncountable)

  1. A rhetorical device involving the use of multiple arguments that are inconsistent with each other.

Origin of kettle logic

Calque of French logique du chaudron. The expression was used by Jacques Derrida in reference to a story related by Sigmund Freud, in which a man accused by his neighbour of having returned a kettle in a damaged condition offers three conflicting arguments: that he returned the kettle undamaged; that it was already damaged when he borrowed it; and that he never borrowed it in the first place.

Questions about kettle logic

What does kettle logic mean?
Kettle logic means a rhetorical device involving the use of multiple arguments that are inconsistent with each other.
What part of speech is kettle logic?
Kettle logic is a noun.

Words near kettle logic in the dictionary

  1. kettle holes
  2. kettle lake
  3. kettle lakes
  4. kettle lead
  5. kettle leads
  6. kettle logic
  7. kettle of fish
  8. kettle stitch
  9. kettle stitches
  10. kettle trap
  11. kettle traps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kettle logic (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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