Salva veritate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Salva veritate substitution, from the Latin for "saving the truth", refers to two expressions that can be interchanged without changing the truth-value of the statements in which they occur. The phrase occurs in two fragments from Gottfried Leibniz's General Science. Characteristics:

  • In Chapter 19, Definition 1, Leibniz writes: "Two terms are the same (eadem) if one can be substituted for the other without altering the truth of any statement (salva veritate)."
  • In Chapter 20, Definition 1, Leibniz writes: "Terms which can be substituted for one another wherever we please without altering the truth of any statement (salva veritate), are the same (eadem) or coincident (coincidentia). For example, 'triangle' and 'trilateral', for in every proposition demonstrated by Euclid concerning 'triangle', 'trilateral' can be substituted without loss of truth (salva veritate)."

In general use, salva veritate means interchangeable or substitutable without loss of truth.

In literary citations, salva veritate, abbreviated s.v., is often used in an encyclopedia when using another encyclopedic reference as a source, and indicates that the information can be found under the same article heading there.

[edit] References

Languages