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Single Idea 19656

[filed under theme 2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 3. Non-Contradiction ]

Full Idea

The principle of non-contradiction itself is without reason, and consequently it can only be the norm for what is thinkable by us, rather than for what is possible in the absolute sense.

Gist of Idea

Non-contradiction is unjustified, so it only reveals a fact about thinking, not about reality?

Source

Quentin Meillassoux (After Finitude; the necessity of contingency [2006], 2)

Book Ref

Meillassoux: 'After Finitude: the necessity of contingency', ed/tr. Brassier,R [Bloomsbury 2008], p.41

A Reaction

This is not Meillassoux's view, but describes the modern heresy of 'correlationism', which ties all assessments of how reality is to our capacity to think about it. Personally I take logical non-contradiction to derive from non-contradiction in nature.

The 22 ideas with the same theme [a proposition is claimed to be both true and false]:

12268 Contradiction is impossible [Antisthenes (I), by Aristotle]
23917 Contrary statements can both be reasonable, if they are meant in two different ways [Aristotle]
6561 A thing cannot be both in and not-in the same thing (at a given time) [Aristotle]
11281 We cannot say that one thing both is and is not a man [Aristotle]
1602 For Aristotle predication is regulated by Non-Contradiction, because underlying stability is essential [Roochnik on Aristotle]
1601 The most certain basic principle is that contradictories can't be true at the same time [Aristotle]
11282 Aristotle does not take the principle of non-contradiction for granted [Aristotle, by Politis]
9108 From an impossibility anything follows [William of Ockham]
15616 If truth is just non-contradiction, we must take care that our basic concepts aren't contradictory [Hegel]
21983 Being and nothing are the same and not the same, which is the identity of identity and non-identity [Hegel]
21985 The so-called world is filled with contradiction [Hegel]
14787 Self-contradiction doesn't reveal impossibility; it is inductive impossibility which reveals self-contradiction [Peirce]
4531 Our inability to both affirm and deny a single thing is merely an inability, not a 'necessity' [Nietzsche]
22642 Man has an intense natural interest in the consistency of his own thinking [James]
17632 Non-contradiction was learned from instances, and then found to be indubitable [Russell]
6566 The problem is to explain the role of contradiction in social life [Wittgenstein]
9023 If you say that a contradiction is true, you change the meaning of 'not', and so change the subject [Quine]
6564 To affirm 'p and not-p' is to have mislearned 'and' or 'not' [Quine]
9123 Someone standing in a doorway seems to be both in and not-in the room [Priest,G, by Sorensen]
4633 You cannot rationally deny the principle of non-contradiction, because all reasoning requires it [Baggini /Fosl]
6565 The law of noncontradiction makes the distinction between asserting something and denying it [Fogelin]
19656 Non-contradiction is unjustified, so it only reveals a fact about thinking, not about reality? [Meillassoux]