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Single Idea 19459

[from 'The Problem of Knowledge' by A.J. Ayer, in 11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 5. Cogito Critique ]

Full Idea

To say 'I am not thinking' is self-stultifying since if it is said intelligently it must be false: but it is not self-contradictory. The proof that it is not self-contradictory is that it might have been false.

Gist of Idea

To say 'I am not thinking' must be false, but it might have been true, so it isn't self-contradictory

Source

A.J. Ayer (The Problem of Knowledge [1956], 2.iii)

Book Reference

Ayer,A.J.: 'The Problem of Knowledge' [Penguin 1966], p.45


A Reaction

If it doesn't imply a contradiction, then it is not a necessary truth, which is what it is normally taken to be. Is 'This is a sentence' necessarily true? It might not have been one, if the rules of English syntax changed recently.