How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
While this question was asked by Thomas Aquinas to mock questions he thought were waste of time as a *reductio ad absurdum* challenge, the serious answer for this question would be that there is no answer: angels, in all writings, are described as ethereal beings not constrained by physical boundaries of space, and any solutions attempting to bound them to the region of a pinhead cannot be applied.
What does reductio ad absurdum mean? And what're the synonyms of it?
It means reduction to absurdity in Latin. It is a type of argument where the assumptions lead to an absurd conclusion, showing that the assumptions are incorrect. Thomas Aquinas is attempting to show that angels do not have physical properties because assuming that angels have physical properties implies that they might fit on a pin head, which is absurd.
Can you give me a brief biography of Thomas Aquinas?