METAPHYSICS: LAW OF NONCONTRADICTION

Metaphysics: Law of Noncontradiction

Metaphysics: Law of Noncontradiction

Introduction

In college classes across the world, young people are taught that there is “no truth.” Ironically, this statement itself makes a claim as to what is true. And if it is true that there is no truth then the statement is false. Understanding this basic chain of reasoning is the starting point of understanding logic and logic is how the discerning mind comes to know what is true. This is important because we all have a worldview. We all have ideas of what is true and what is not true. What is possible and what is not possible. The problem is that only one worldview can be correct, and that is the correct worldview. This is necessarily true because the incorrect worldview cannot be the correct worldview. In this paper, we will be discussing the Law of Noncontradiction of Aristotle from a personal point of view. Furthermore, different sources have been cited in order to give their sight of view on the subject.

Discussion

A thing cannot be both correct and incorrect at the same time. Similarly, a car cannot be blue and not blue at the same time. A man cannot be running and not running at the same time. These are contradictions. Contradictions are two opposing statements which mean that they are opposites, they oppose one another. As we apply this to reality, a person cannot be both alive and dead at the same time and in the same sense (Heidegger, 2000). It is one thing to say a man is both “alive” physically and “dead” spiritually at the same time but, this is not in the same sense. One sense refers to the physical and the other to the spiritual (Aristotle, 1993). So we see by this simple example that contradictions ...