What is Contradiction: Definition and 259 Discussions

In traditional logic, a contradiction occurs when a proposition conflicts either with itself or established fact. It is often used as a tool to detect disingenuous beliefs and bias. Illustrating a general tendency in applied logic, Aristotle's law of noncontradiction states that "It is impossible that the same thing can at the same time both belong and not belong to the same object and in the same respect."In modern formal logic, the term is mainly used instead for a single proposition, often denoted by the falsum symbol






{\displaystyle \bot }
; a proposition is a contradiction if false can be derived from it, using the rules of the logic. It is a proposition that is unconditionally false (i.e., a self-contradictory proposition). This can be generalized to a collection of propositions, which is then said to "contain" a contradiction.

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  1. Jameson

    Contradiction of God's Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnibenevolence

    I think this has a formal name, to which I do not know, so I will try my best to explain these statements which I argue to be a contradiction of God. Define "God" as all powerful, all knowing, and all loving. Premise: Their is pain and suffering in the world 1. If God is all knowing...
  2. S

    What is the Concept of Proof by Contradiction in Mathematics?

    hello all well now i see that there are a lot of ways of proving things, but there is one way in which I don't understand at first sight, and that is proof by contradiction, is there anyway general way of understanding it? I have worked on so many proofs but these are the only ones i most...
  3. L

    Ain't No Proof By Contradiction

    I recently saw something that said some mathematicians won't acknowledge proof by contradiction. What is the reason for that? Could somebody elaborate on this for me.
  4. M

    Compactness contradiction physics

    Let A be a compact subset of a metric space (X,d). Show that there exist a,b in A such that d(A) = d(a,b) where d(A) denotes the diameter of A. I guess...we're supposed to use the fact that a compactness of A implies that it is closed and bounded or alternately...we could assume that...
  5. Jameson

    Contradiction of God: Examining Free Will & Omniscience

    Let me define the God I am talking about first. I am looking at one quality of the Christian God, omniscience. That is "Having total knowledge; knowing everything". Now I am going with the belief that God knows all past and all future as the statement I am discussing. This is a question of...
  6. N

    Mathematica Does the demand on no mathematical contradiction fix our world?

    Consider the following: Postulate as FEW as possible things that seem to be necessary to make (intelligent) life possible, e.g. causality (one should be able to kill one's dad) at least at "large" scales,...?... Let there be mathematical logic and demand that all laws of nature can be written...
  7. T

    Trivial contradiction to the 3rd postulate

    Suppose we have two operators A and B, such that they are both hermitian with eigenvalues ai and bi. We construct a new operator like this C=A +iB, where i is the imaginary unity. Operator C is observable in the sense that it is measurable. Yes, if we measure A and B (suppose for simplicity that...
  8. E

    Understanding Ohm's and Watt's Laws: The Contradiction Explained

    This has been racking my brain for the last week.. its about current..i keep trying to think of a circuit as a water hose, with voltage being the pressure, current being the flow, resistance being a kink in the hose, etc... Ohm's Law Current = Voltage / Resistance This is common...
  9. Zantra

    Philisophical contradiction of science

    Something occurred to me, and it has in the past, but I couldn't isolate it enough to vocalize the idea, but I believe I have. Science is founded on the belief that a theory or hypothesis is formulated, tested, and proved or disproved, correct? But I quite frequently see attitudes which...
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