Definitions

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  • noun philosophy The view that there are true contradictions, i.e. true statements whose negations are also true.

Etymologies

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Coined by Graham Priest and Richard Routley, from Ancient Greek di ("two"). + aletheia ("truth"), in 1981

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Examples

  • Given that trivialism is absurd, which has been granted in this entry (though why this is so is not as easy a question as it might appear: see Priest, 2000, and Priest, 2006, Ch. 3), dialetheism must be rejected.

    Dialetheism Priest, Graham 2008

  • There certainly are various other arguents against dialetheism in the philosophical market.

    Dialetheism Priest, Graham 2008

  • Actually, that dialetheism challenges the LNC needs qualification, since the LNC is accepted as a general logical law in the mainstream versions of the theory.

    Dialetheism Priest, Graham 2008

  • In Western Philosophy, a number of the Presocratics endorsed dialetheism.

    Dialetheism Priest, Graham 2008

  • Though dialetheism is not a new view, the word itself is.

    Dialetheism Priest, Graham 2008

  • (Contains some discussion of most of the motivations for dialetheism.)

    Dialetheism Priest, Graham 2008

  • As such, dialetheism opposes the so-called Law of Non-Contradiction (LNC) (sometimes also called the Law of Contradiction).

    Dialetheism Priest, Graham 2008

  • (A detailed discussion of some modern objections to dialetheism.)

    Dialetheism Priest, Graham 2008

  • In fact, Hegel was driven to embrace dialetheism by his assessment of Kant's achievements in the Critique of Pure Reason.

    Dialetheism Priest, Graham 2008

  • As a challenge to the LNC, therefore, dialetheism flies in the face of what most philosophers take to be common sense.

    Dialetheism Priest, Graham 2008

Comments

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  • From Philosophical Pontifications: 'Dialetheism, for those not in the know, is the thesis that that some contradictions are true. It is platitudinous that some of the things people say are true and others false—and some, dialetheists add, are both true and false.'

    November 20, 2007

  • Oh, and on the origins: 'Though dialetheism is not a new view, the word itself is. It was coined by Graham Priest and Richard Routley (later Sylvan) in 1981... The inspiration for the name was a passage in Wittgenstein's Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, where he describes the liar sentence (‘this sentence is not true’) as a Janus-headed figure facing both truth and falsity... Hence a di-aletheia is a two(-way) truth. Unfortunately, Priest and Routley forgot to agree how to spell the ‘ism’, and versions with and without the ‘e’ appear in print.'

    November 20, 2007