antinomy
Americannoun
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opposition between one law, principle, rule, etc., and another.
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Philosophy. a contradiction between two statements, both apparently obtained by correct reasoning.
noun
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opposition of one law, principle, or rule to another; contradiction within a law
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philosophy contradiction existing between two apparently indubitable propositions; paradox
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of antinomy
1585–95; < Latin antinomia < Greek antinomía a contradiction between laws. See anti-, -nomy
Explanation
If two contradictory statements both seem reasonable and true, you can call this conundrum an antinomy. The noun comes from the Latin and Greek word antinomia, which meant a contradiction in the law. The philosopher Immanuel Kant famously suggested four antinomies. One of them stated that the world had a definite beginning and will have a definite end. On the other hand, Kant added, the world is infinite in terms of time and space. Both statements at first blush appear reasonable, but since it's impossible that the world could be both finite and infinite, the two ideas together form an antinomy.
Vocabulary lists containing antinomy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Philosophers similarly examined the antinomy of the individual and the group, shaped by the periods of history and the dialectic.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 31, 2021
“The essay is structurally flawed by a false antinomy, an either/or scenario doomed to generate opinions rather than dialogue. Anyway, who wants to have an argument that only has two sides?”
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 28, 2019
When Heidl is willing to talk to Kehlmann, he talks in a qualmless gala of paranoia and parentheses, of non sequitur and evasion, of conspiracy and antinomy, of sundered sermons.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 4, 2018
There is certainly a real antinomy which is difficult to reconcile between this dual egoism of exclusive and concentrated love and social solidarity or human altruism.
From The Sexual Question A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study by Forel, Auguste
As it were by his own antinomy, or counterstatute.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Webster, Noah
One thing that especially endears the poet to his colleagues, however, is his fashionable fondness for antinomies �his perception that life is lived in impossible tension between unresolvable opposites.
From Time Magazine Archive
TIN SWE Rangoon, Burma Sir: Although I am not a Buddhist, I interpreted your article on the subject as an unregenerate evaluation of the antinomies of a great religion.
From Time Magazine Archive
For like his predecessor, Kosinski explores the classic antinomies of rationality�and of experience that defeats reason and mocks humanity.
From Time Magazine Archive
Many problems facing the church in Asian countries today stem as much from changing social and cultural conditions as they do from traditional antinomies.
From Time Magazine Archive
The power of words on the human mind produces antinomies which do not really exist; such is the case with the terms vice and disease.
From The Sexual Question A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study by Forel, Auguste
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
