1. contend, postulate -- (maintain or assert; "He contended that Communism had no future")
2. postulate, posit -- (take as a given; assume as a postulate or axiom; "He posited three basic laws of nature")
3. necessitate, ask, postulate, need, require, take, involve, call for, demand -- (require as useful, just, or proper; "It takes nerve to do what she did"; "success usually requires hard work"; "This job asks a lot of patience and skill"; "This position demands a lot of personal sacrifice"; "This dinner calls for a spectacular dessert"; "This intervention does not postulate a patient's consent")
postulate can be used as a noun
1. postulate, posit -- ((logic) a proposition that is accepted as true in order to provide a basis for logical reasoning)
1.
But to arrive at these laws, resulting from the sum of all those human wills, man's mind postulates arbitrary and disconnected units. - from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy