non-contradictionn.
/ˌnɒnkɒntrəˈdɪkʃn/, U.S. /ˈˌnɑnˌkɑntrəˈdɪkʃ(ə)n/ The absence or lack of contradiction; failure to contradict; (Logic) principle (also law) of non-contradiction = principle (or law) of contradiction at contradiction n. 4c.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical proposition > [noun] > opposite or contradictory proposition(s) > of absence contradiction
non-contradiction1853
1853 V. Cousin Hist. Mod. Philos. 356 The non-contradiction which is found between the idea of existence and the idea of me.
a1856 W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics (1859) II. xxxviii. 368 The highest of all logical laws..is what is called the principle of Contradiction, or more correctly the principle of Non-Contradiction. It is this:—A thing cannot be and not be at the same time.
1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 782/2 The stricter followers of the Kantian logical idea..recognize, as sole principles which can be said to be involved universally in the action of thought, the laws of identity, non-contradiction, and excluded middle.
1892 T. H. Huxley in Pop. Sci. Monthly Sept. 601 This non-natural sense may..be manipulated into some sort of non-contradiction of scientific truth.
1953 I. M. Copi Introd. to Logic viii. 252 The ‘Principle of Contradiction’ (sometimes the ‘Principle of Non-Contradiction’).
1984 S. James Content Social Explan. (BNC) 93 According to Althusser, this model is the key to the Marxist concepts of contradiction and non-contradiction.
1993 A. I. C. Heron Cent. of Protestant Theol. (BNC) 39 They had exploited this idea as doing more justice to the nature of life and movement and the discovery of truth than the older rationalist insistence on the ‘law of non-contradiction’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1853