ladéquation

Ladéquation is a French term that denotes the state or quality of being adequate—fit, appropriateness, or correspondence between two elements. In scholarly usage, it describes the match between representations, descriptions, models, or actions and the objects, phenomena, data, or goals they engage with.

Etymology and sense: The word comes from Latin adequatio, via Old French and modern French adéquation. It is related to the adjectives adéquat and the noun adéquation, and in English-language writing the core ideas are often expressed with adequacy or adequation.

Usage across disciplines: In philosophy of language, epistemology, and the philosophy of science, l'adéquation refers to the correspondence between thought and reality; a proposition, theory, or description is considered adequate if its content accurately mirrors what it seeks to describe or explain. In logic and mathematics, the term can denote the fidelity of a formal system, model, or interpretation to its intended domain. In linguistics and semiotics, it appears in discussions of how signs or utterances align with referents and contexts.

Applications and examples: In education and the social sciences, l'adéquation is used to describe alignment among learning objectives, instructional methods, and assessment tasks, with the goal that outcomes reflect the intended learning. In research methodology, it may refer to the fit between a hypothesis and observed data or between a theoretical framework and empirical phenomena.

Limitations: Adequation is often context-dependent and relative to specific goals; a model or description can be adequate for one purpose and inadequate for another.