Thanks for the feedback. I agree that reductio ad absurdum is the weakest of the examples I gave, but let me try to justify it anyways: if X is a fully general counterargument, then we can use it to argue against true statements as well as false ones. So applying X without any additional justification would lead to patently false conclusions, and therefore (by reductio ad absurdum) X is not a valid form of reasoning. Perhaps this is not the best word for it, but it is similar to a very pervasive idea in mathematics, where when formulating possible approaches to prove a theorem, a key criterion is whether those approaches can distinguish between the theorem and similar statements that are known or suspected to be false.
ETA: And yes, I agree that specific examples are good!
Yes, that’s the usual application, but it’s the wrong level of generality to make them synonyms. “Fully general counterargument” is one particular absurdity that you can reduce things to. Even after you’ve specified that you’re performing a reductio ad absurdum against the proposition “argument X is sound”, you still need to say what the absurd conclusion is, so you still need a term for “fully general counterargument”.
Thanks for the feedback. I agree that reductio ad absurdum is the weakest of the examples I gave, but let me try to justify it anyways: if X is a fully general counterargument, then we can use it to argue against true statements as well as false ones. So applying X without any additional justification would lead to patently false conclusions, and therefore (by reductio ad absurdum) X is not a valid form of reasoning. Perhaps this is not the best word for it, but it is similar to a very pervasive idea in mathematics, where when formulating possible approaches to prove a theorem, a key criterion is whether those approaches can distinguish between the theorem and similar statements that are known or suspected to be false.
ETA: And yes, I agree that specific examples are good!
Yes, that’s the usual application, but it’s the wrong level of generality to make them synonyms. “Fully general counterargument” is one particular absurdity that you can reduce things to. Even after you’ve specified that you’re performing a reductio ad absurdum against the proposition “argument X is sound”, you still need to say what the absurd conclusion is, so you still need a term for “fully general counterargument”.