Aristotelian Laws of Thought

Discussion

Jeremy Naydler:

"Ever since Aristotle formulated the Laws of Thought in the 4th century BC, the Binarius has assumed pride of place in the conscious mind, for it was then that the default position of rational thinking, based on a thorough adherence to the rules of logic, became binary. Aristotle's Laws of Thought underpin logical reasoning, and they are three in number.(b)

The first Law of Thought is the *law of identity*: "A thing is what it is and not another thing." The "not" is an important word in this first law, which defines one thing in terms of it *not* being another thing. By defining something in terms of what it is not, the law establishes binary opposition as a principal tool of analysis. This was a radical idea at the time, as we shall see.

This first Law of Thought is backed up by the second law, the *law of contradiction*, which can be stated as follows: "If there are two contradictory statements and one of them is true, then the other one *has* to be false." This law of contradiction requires that we embrace binary, or oppositional thinking in our efforts to orientate ourselves towards truth. If someone says: "That animal is a dog," then the statement precludes asserting at the same time, that it is not a dog. Likewise, if someone says he is late because he missed the bus, then either this is true or false: either he missed it or he didn't miss it. The law of contradiction demands that two contradictory statements cannot both be true: one of them has to be false. This is both how we work out the truth and it is also what most of us would nowadays simply call the application of "common sense."

The irresistible implication of the first two laws is expressed in the third and final Law of Thought: the *law of the excluded middle*,which is that "there cannot be anything between the two parts of a contradiction." There isn't a third option. The dog cannot be both a dog and a not-dog, just as a person cannot both miss and not miss the bus. The "excluded middle" is summed up in the Latin phrase: *tertium non datur*. "The third is not given." It means there is no intermediate position between the opposites. Thus the law of the excluded middle, by disallowing any third possibility, exalts the principle of Twoness."

(https://alvinchevskiy.substack.com/p/the-archetype-of-the-binarius)