Literary notes about untenable (AI summary)
The term "untenable" is widely used in literature to reject positions, theories, or claims that prove indefensible upon closer scrutiny. For instance, early texts dismiss ideas by labeling them as lacking foundation, such as the literary recluse theory being deemed untenable in debates on authorship [1]. Similarly, in rhetorical and philosophical contexts, writers often invoke "untenable" to challenge established viewpoints—whether critiquing the notion of a moral Christian God [2] or dismissing rigid political stances as unworkable [3]. The word also appears in more personal or situational assessments, as when a character realizes that their circumstances have grown untenable [4]. Overall, authors use "untenable" to signal that a particular idea or position fails to withstand logical, evidentiary, or practical challenges, thus calling for its rejection or reexamination [5, 6, 7].
- As for Yeh Shui-hsin's theory, that the author was a literary recluse, that seems to me quite untenable.
— from The Art of War by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi - The idea of the Christian moral God becomes untenable,—hence "Atheism,"—as though there could be no other god.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche - (d) A national system of politics is untenable, and embarrassment by Christian views is a very great evil.
— from The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - You can appreciate that under these conditions, our situation had become untenable.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - ( e ) Are all contrary positions shown to be relatively untenable?
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - The pretension to have reached a point of view from which all impulse may be criticised is accordingly an untenable pretension.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - This was both unwise and untenable.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
