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I'm writing an essay for a critical thinking course, and I'm evaluating the following claim:

Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished.

What is a word for the phrase "Without application in the world"? I considered the "predicate" of the claim, but it doesn't seem to fit. It's also not quite a "prerequisite", either. This question seemed similar, but doesn't quite answer my question.

I'm looking to finish the sentence In order to evaluate the claim as a whole, we must take the ~~~ as true, however, this is not necessarily the case either.

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  • I think the first part of the sentence is known as a "defining relative clause". I am not very sure about it, hence offering it as comment.
    – BiscuitBoy
    Feb 15, 2016 at 6:57
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    At least in the context of law, something taken as given in a claim is termed a stipulation. But in your context, perhaps postulate would be a more suitable term.
    – Sven Yargs
    Feb 15, 2016 at 7:12
  • If regarded as a conditional ("If knowledge has no application in the world, then its value is greatly diminished"), then the first part would be a protasis, in terms of grammar, or an antecedent, in terms of logic.
    – Yay
    Feb 15, 2016 at 9:51

3 Answers 3

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Would premise work for you?
a proposition supporting or helping to support a conclusion.

"if the premise is true, then the conclusion must be true"

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"Postulate"(N) would be a good word as the Oxford dictionary assigns the definition to mean a hypothesis that is advanced to position or role of a claim or premise. What is significant is that the definition makes no remark as to whether the hypothesis has to be tested.

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...it is considered axiomatic that ... (admitted first principle; self-evident; indisputably true (OED).

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