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Full Idea
How can something that is not true not be false, or how can something that is not false not be true?
Gist of Idea
How can the not-true fail to be false, or the not-false fail to be true?
Source
M. Tullius Cicero (On Fate ('De fato') [c.44 BCE], 16.38)
Book Ref
Cicero: 'On Fate, Stoic Paradoxes, Oratory', ed/tr. Rackham,H. [Harvard Loeb 1942], p.235
A Reaction
We must at least distinguish between whether the contrary thing is not actually true, or whether we are prepared to assert that it is not true. The disjunction may seem to be a false dichotomy. 'He isn't good' may not entail 'he is evil'.
Related Idea
Idea 21676 Epicureans say disjunctions can be true whiile the disjuncts are not true [Epicurus, by Cicero]
| 21667 | Oratory and philosophy are closely allied; orators borrow from philosophy, and ornament it [Cicero] |
| 21677 | How can the not-true fail to be false, or the not-false fail to be true? [Cicero] |
| 21678 | If desire is not in our power then neither are choices, so we should not be praised or punished [Cicero] |