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Full Idea
The principle of contradiction is the principle of necessity, and the principle that a sufficient reason must be given is the principle of contingency.
Gist of Idea
Necessities rest on contradiction, and contingencies on sufficient reason
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (On Sufficient Reason [1686], p.95)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Leibniz Selections', ed/tr. Wiener,Philip P. [Scribners 1951], p.95
A Reaction
[this paragraph is actually undated] Contradictions occur in concrete actuality, as well as in theories and formal systems. If so, then there are necessities in nature. Are they discoverable a posteriori? Leibniz says not.
Related Idea
Idea 19661 Making sufficient reason an absolute devalues the principle of non-contradiction [Hegel, by Meillassoux]
| 19360 | General principles, even if unconscious, are indispensable for thinking [Leibniz] |
| 19404 | Necessities rest on contradiction, and contingencies on sufficient reason [Leibniz] |
| 7807 | The laws of thought are true, but they are not the axioms of logic [Bolzano, by George/Van Evra] |
| 6933 | The laws of reality are also the laws of thought [Feuerbach] |
| 8939 | We should not describe human laws of thought, but how to correctly track truth [Frege, by Fisher] |
| 5396 | Three Laws of Thought: identity, contradiction, and excluded middle [Russell] |
| 5405 | The law of contradiction is not a 'law of thought', but a belief about things [Russell] |
| 9131 | Two long understandable sentences can have an unintelligible conjunction [Sorensen] |
| 6560 | The law of noncontradiction is traditionally the most basic principle of rationality [Fogelin] |