kettle logic

noun

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

OriginFrench logique du chaudron →
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Meanings

nounkettle logic (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA rhetorical device involving the use of multiple arguments that are inconsistent with each other.

Origin

  1. Frenchlogique du chaudron
  2. Englishkettle 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.

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Cite this entry
APA

kettle logic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kettle%20logic

MLA

“kettle logic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kettle%20logic. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kettle logic,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kettle%20logic.

Source: kettle logic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.