A week or so ago I said I had a question I wanted you all to think about that would serve a purpose to help each of us open up our assumptions, which we may or may not know exist, and help us to understand how we think and maybe why we think and believe the way we do. The first thing we need to ask ourselves deals with the type of logic we use, again whether we are aware of it or not. Bear with me as I try to explain.
Given two contradictory statements, philisophically speaking, you have two options.
Option 1:
EITHER Statement 1 is true and Statement 2 is false OR Statement 1 is false and Statement 2 is true. Y
Option 2:
BOTH Statement 1 AND Statement 2 are true.
Now, which logical system do you ascribe to? (EITHER OR / BOTH AND) Why? Explain. Caution, read the above statements again and think very hard about what I'm asking. This will be fun!
Pat
I believe there are more than two options when presented with two contradictory statements, depending on the statements. But, since you give me only two options, I would say that more often, my viewpoint aligns with option 2 for there are more instances of grey than black and white.
ReplyDeleteYes, the only other possibility is that they are both false. Please provide an example where two contradictory statements can both be true. If you can then I would ask that you review the statements to see if they are indeed contradictory.
ReplyDeleteFor example, an athiest would say that there is no God. A non-athiest would say that there is. These statements are mutually exclusive or contradictory. In addition, they are exhaustive meaning they cover all possibilities of the question concerning whether there is or is not a God. The question is, can both statements be correct? Certainly, both individuals may think that their statement is correct, but can both be? In this case, one or the other is true the other is false. Both can't be false.
This might seem obvious to some, but some would argue that what's true for one person is not true for another.