The Law of Non-Contradiction as a Metaphysical Principle

Australasian Journal of Logic 7:32-47 (2009)
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Abstract

The goals of this paper are two-fold: I wish to clarify the Aristotelian conception of the law of non-contradiction as a metaphysical rather than a semantic or logical principle, and to defend the truth of the principle in this sense. First I will explain what it in fact means that the law of non-contradiction is a metaphysical principle. The core idea is that the law of non-contradiction is a general principle derived from how things are in the world. For example, there are certain constraints as to what kind of properties an object can have, and especially: some of these properties are mutually exclusive. Given this characterisation, I will advance to examine what kind of challenges the law of non-contradiction faces; the main opponent here is Graham Priest. I will consider these challenges and conclude that they do not threaten the truth of the law of non-contradiction understood as a metaphysical principle

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Tuomas E. Tahko
University of Bristol

Citations of this work

Possibility Precedes Actuality.Tuomas E. Tahko - 2023 - Erkenntnis 88 (8):3583-3603.
Negation on the Australian Plan.Francesco Berto & Greg Restall - 2019 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 48 (6):1119-1144.
Aristotle on Non-contradiction.Paula Gottlieb - 2023 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Dialetheism.Francesco Berto, Graham Priest & Zach Weber - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2018 (2018).

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References found in this work

A survey of metaphysics.E. Jonathan Lowe - 2002 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
On truthmakers for negative truths.J. C. Beall - 2000 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 78 (2):264 – 268.
Perceiving contradictions.Graham Priest - 1999 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 77 (4):439 – 446.
Semantic Dialetheism.Edwin Mares - 2004 - In Graham Priest, Jc Beall & Bradley P. Armour-Garb, The law of non-contradiction : new philosophical essays. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 264–275.

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