law of contradiction

American  

noun

Logic.

1. the law that a proposition cannot be both true and false or that a thing cannot both have and not have a given property.

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Example Sentences

The law of contradiction, after all, is not enforceable; if it were the jails would overflow.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 2, 2016

Secondly, he has lost sight altogether of the other sense of Not-being, as the negative of Being; although he again and again recognizes the validity of the law of contradiction.

From Sophist by Plato

But also you cannot make the future other than it will be; this again is an application of the law of contradiction.

From Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays by Russell, Bertrand

For example, the law of contradiction states that nothing can both have a certain property and not have it.

From The Problems of Philosophy by Russell, Bertrand

But if the law of contradiction itself were subjected to the test of coherence, we should find that, if we choose to suppose it false, nothing will any longer be incoherent with anything else.

From The Problems of Philosophy by Russell, Bertrand