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

You cannot make the past other than it was—true, but this is a mere 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

The law of contradiction is as clearly laid down by him in the Republic, as by Aristotle in his Organon.

From Sophist by Plato

The law of contradiction does not apply in-the-lived-experienced-world.

From Humanistic Nursing by Paterson, Josephine G.