Thursday, May 19, 2011

Truth and contradiction

1.0: Contradictory statements cannot be held in tension, since they cannot both be true: A or non-A.

1.1: Nor can they be balanced or celebrated.

2.0: Those who write as if 1.0 and 1.1 are false, should not be taken seriously.

6 comments:

David Strunk said...

Quick question in relation to this post Dr. G, and it relates to my love of G.K. Chesterton. He was famous for the "paradox," which always seems to hold two ideas in tension that initially seem contradictory (perhaps they aren't though). An example I'm remembering is how we're supposed to hate and love this world all at the same time. We hate it so much to want to change it but love it so much since it's worth changing.

Could you comment on Chesterton's use of the paradox as it relates to the law of non-contradiction?

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

A paradox is a seeming contradiction, not a real one. Jesus taught in paradox, "The last will be first," but he never flaunted contradictions; nor did Chesterton.

Frieda said...

Im curious - was this post spurred by something specific?

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

This was prompted by Rob Bell's approach to Christianity.

Frieda said...

Yes, that makes sense.

ThomasTancredo said...

Dr. Groothuis,

Good post.

This type of post would be much appreciate at the Less Wrong community.

Perhaps you could offer a philosophical post or two there?

www.LessWrong.com

Check out their Sequences to get an idea of what they are about.