Vocabulary Word
Word: supposition
Definition: assumption; hypothesis; surmise; V. suppose
Definition: assumption; hypothesis; surmise; V. suppose
Sentences Containing 'supposition'
or twenty years hence''``You do me too much honor,''said the Marquis;``still, I prefer that supposition.''''
``Nor have I.''``If any one of these men, or all of these men, were disposed to spare him which is a large supposition; for what is his life, or any man's to them!
The hall, the dining room, and all its furniture, were examined and praised; and his commendation of everything would have touched Mrs. Bennet's heart, but for the mortifying supposition of his viewing it all as his own future property.
She followed him thither; and her curiosity to know what he had to tell her was heightened by the supposition of its being in some manner connected with the letter he held.
Previously the supposition had been that it emptied into the Atlantic, or Sea of Virginia.
This made him less uneasy, it must be owned, than if the new comer had proved to be a customs officer; but this supposition also disappeared like the first, when he beheld the perfect tranquillity of his recruit.
And was he not the person who was assassinated one evening on leaving a Bonapartist meeting to which he had been invited on the supposition that he favored the cause of the emperor?''
``And then, you know,''he said,``an idea, a supposition, is sufficient.''
Noirtier looked his conviction that she was right in her supposition.
You say an exterminating angel appears to have devoted that house to God's anger well, who says your supposition is not reality?
``You remember,''said the count, during the most profound silence,``that the unhappy wretch who came to rob me died at my house; the supposition is that he was stabbed by his accomplice, on attempting to leave it.''
My allegation on the contrary, that it met with such approbation as to leave no doubt of our being able to raise two thousand pounds by voluntary donations, they considered as a most extravagant supposition, and utterly impossible.
Even though the quality of the cloths, therefore, should be supposed equal, and that of the present times is most probably much superior, yet, even upon this supposition, the money price of the finest cloth appears to have been considerably reduced since the end of the fifteenth century.
This supposition will not, I believe, be found anywhere agreeable to the truth; but it is the most favourable to the opinion which we are going to examine; and, even upon this supposition, it is utterly impossible that the lowering of the value of silver could have the smallest tendency to lower the rate of interest.
They are founded upon the most absurd of all suppositions, the supposition that every successive generation of men have not an equal right to the earth, and to all that it possesses; but that the property of the present generation should be restrained and regulated according to the fancy of those who died, perhaps five hundred years ago.
According to the supposition, that commodity could be purchased from foreign countries cheaper than it can be made at home; it could therefore have been purchased with a part only of the commodities, or, what is the same thing, with a part only of the price of the commodities, which the industry employed by an equal capital would have produced at home, had it been left to follow its natural course.
This would be the case, even upon the supposition that the whole French goods imported were to be consumed in Great Britain.
The state of our North American colonies, and of the trade which they carried on with Great Britain, before the commencement of the present disturbances, {This paragraph was written in the year 1775.} may serve as a proof that this is by no means an impossible supposition.
Even upon this very moderate supposition, the great body of the people, over and above contributing the tax which pays the bounty of 5s.
This, upon a supposition that the souls after death do for a while subsist single, may be answered.
But sure if itself do not of itself, through some false opinion or supposition incline itself to any such disposition; there is no fear.
Now such differences are intelligible, and might even have been expected, on the supposition that species belonging to distinct families had slowly become adapted to live more and more out of water, and to breathe the air.
For how much must we diminish from the beauty and value of this species of philosophy, upon such a supposition?
We have said that all arguments concerning existence are founded on the relation of cause and effect; that our knowledge of that relation is derived entirely from experience; and that all our experimental conclusions proceed upon the supposition that the future will be conformable to the past.
To endeavour, therefore, the proof of this last supposition by probable arguments, or arguments regarding existence, must be evidently going in a circle, and taking that for granted, which is the very point in question.
It is impossible, therefore, that any arguments from experience can prove this resemblance of the past to the future; since all these arguments are founded on the supposition of that resemblance.
What logic, what process of argument secures you against this supposition?
Being determined by custom to transfer the past to the future, in all our inferences; where the past has been entirely regular and uniform, we expect the event with the greatest assurance, and leave no room for any contrary supposition.
We might say, upon such a supposition, that one object or event has followed another; not that one was produced by the other.
But as long as we will rashly suppose, that we have some farther idea of necessity and causation in the operations of external objects; at the same time, that we can find nothing farther in the voluntary actions of the mind; there is no possibility of bringing the question to any determinate issue, while we proceed upon so erroneous a supposition.
The supposition of farther attributes is mere hypothesis; much more the supposition, that, in distant regions of space or periods of time, there has been, or will be, a more magnificent display of these attributes, and a scheme of administration more suitable to such imaginary virtues.
And upon that supposition, I own that such conjectures may, perhaps, be admitted as plausible solutions of the ill phenomena.
Now, without some such licence of supposition, it is impossible for us to argue from the cause, or infer any alteration in the effect, beyond what has immediately fallen under our observation.
I shall just observe, that, as the antagonists of Epicurus always suppose the universe, an effect quite singular and unparalleled, to be the proof of a Deity, a cause no less singular and unparalleled; your reasonings, upon that supposition, seem, at least, to merit our attention.
The supposition of such a connexion is, therefore, without any foundation in reasoning.
As I was already much attached to Mr. Dick, and very solicitous for his welfare, my fears favoured this supposition; and for a long time his Wednesday hardly ever came round, without my entertaining a misgiving that he would not be on the coach-box as usual.
Supposing then, for instance--any unlikely thing will do for a supposition--that you and your mother were to have a serious quarrel.'
'My dear Rosa,' interposed Mrs. Steerforth, laughing good-naturedly, 'suggest some other supposition!
I could not conceal from myself that I had done this, though for a reason very different from her supposition.
But even on this supposition the balanced civilization that was at last attained must have long since passed its zenith, and was now far fallen into decay.
But such a supposition did by no means involve the remotest suspicion as to any boat's crew being assigned to that boat.
But not to speak of the passage through the whole length of the Mediterranean, and another passage up the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, such a supposition would involve the complete circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not to speak of the Tigris waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too shallow for any whale to swim in.
The anatomical fact of this labyrinth is indisputable; and that the supposition founded upon it is reasonable and true, seems the more cogent to me, when I consider the otherwise inexplicable obstinacy of that leviathan in HAVING HIS SPOUTINGS OUT, as the fishermen phrase it.
The invariable moisture of my hair, while plunged in deep thought, after six cups of hot tea in my thin shingled attic, of an August noon; this seems an additional argument for the above supposition.
This supposition is in perfect agreement with our knowledge of the later history of these regions.
Tipler (1994) has summarized his theory as follows:
Key to Tipler's exploration of the Omega Point is that the supposition of a closed universe evolving towards a future collapse.
Having claimed that many scientists believe that complex life reveals the hand of an intelligent designer, she said that "The problem with evolution is that it is all supposition – this evolved into this – but there is no evidence".
Rather than adopting the Darwinist theory of unguided natural selection, Ahmadi Muslims promote the supposition of “guided evolution” as being part of the progressive design of God.
A fourth quantum number with two possible values was added as an "ad hoc" assumption to resolve the conflict; this supposition could later be explained in detail by relativistic quantum mechanics and from the results of the renowned Stern-Gerlach experiment.
One of the strongest lines of evidence for the supposition that all the relevant information needed to encode protein tertiary structure is found in the primary sequence was demonstrated in the 1950s by Christian Anfinsen.