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

See Examples For:

law of contradiction

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

Let us take as an illustration the law of contradiction.

From The Problems of Philosophy by Russell, Bertrand

Doubtless this law of contradiction was itself agreement, a restriction of personal liberty inconsistent with freedom; but the "larger synthesis" admitted a limited agreement provided it were strictly confined to the end of larger contradiction.

From The Education of Henry Adams by Adams, Henry

What we believe, when we believe the law of contradiction, is not that the mind is so made that it must believe the law of contradiction.

From The Problems of Philosophy by Russell, Bertrand