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NON-CONTRADICTION: OH YEAH AND SO WHAT?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2013

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Extract

The logical Law of Non-contradiction – that a proposition cannot be both true and false – enjoys a special, perhaps uniquely privileged, status in philosophy. Most philosophers think that finding a contradiction – the assertion of both P and not-P – in one's reasoning is the best possible evidence that something has gone wrong, the ultimate refutation of a position. But why should this be so? What reason do we have to believe it?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2013

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References

Notes

1 Baggini, Julian & Fosl, Peter S., The Philosopher's Toolkit (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2002), 36.Google Scholar

2 Sturgeon, Nicholas L., ‘What Difference Does it Make Whether Moral Realism is True?Southern Journal of Philosophy, 1986, vol. XXIV, Supplement, 115141CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 115.