What is this thing called dialetheism?

This paper has two parts. In the first I discuss two claims made by Priest in Some Comments and Replies (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-25365-3 27, 2019): (i) that the idea of ‘contradictions in reality’ lacks textual support in his work, and (ii) that such contradictions would require a theory of truth as...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Abilio Rodrigues
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2025-07-01
Series:Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/107886
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849318041724125184
author Abilio Rodrigues
author_facet Abilio Rodrigues
author_sort Abilio Rodrigues
collection DOAJ
description This paper has two parts. In the first I discuss two claims made by Priest in Some Comments and Replies (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-25365-3 27, 2019): (i) that the idea of ‘contradictions in reality’ lacks textual support in his work, and (ii) that such contradictions would require a theory of truth as correspondence with entities such as facts or states of affairs. With respect to (i), I will recognize that, after a closer reading of his texts, in particular In Contradiction (2nd edition, OUP, 2006), I have not been able to find clear examples of dialetheias related to real contradictions. As far as I could see, for Priest, dialetheism is mainly a thesis about our conceptual framework and mental processes. As for (ii), in opposition to him, I will argue that all we need to make sense of the idea of contradictions in reality is the apparatus provided by Tarski’s definition of truth, and an object a and a predicate P such that a satisfies both P and ¬P. In the second part, I discuss what one must accept to be a dialetheist and what is required for dialetheism to be a plausible and interesting thesis. My conclusion is that dialetheism ends up being either a strong but implausible thesis about contradictions in extra-mental and extra-linguistic phenomena, or a weaker but interesting claim about contradictions produced by thought and language.
format Article
id doaj-art-a427730df49a44aa83d33f4897af298b
institution Kabale University
issn 1808-1711
language English
publishDate 2025-07-01
publisher Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
record_format Article
series Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology
spelling doaj-art-a427730df49a44aa83d33f4897af298b2025-08-20T03:51:02ZengUniversidade Federal de Santa CatarinaPrincipia: An International Journal of Epistemology1808-17112025-07-0129210.5007/1808-1711.2025.e107886What is this thing called dialetheism?Abilio Rodrigues0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6639-9550Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais This paper has two parts. In the first I discuss two claims made by Priest in Some Comments and Replies (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-25365-3 27, 2019): (i) that the idea of ‘contradictions in reality’ lacks textual support in his work, and (ii) that such contradictions would require a theory of truth as correspondence with entities such as facts or states of affairs. With respect to (i), I will recognize that, after a closer reading of his texts, in particular In Contradiction (2nd edition, OUP, 2006), I have not been able to find clear examples of dialetheias related to real contradictions. As far as I could see, for Priest, dialetheism is mainly a thesis about our conceptual framework and mental processes. As for (ii), in opposition to him, I will argue that all we need to make sense of the idea of contradictions in reality is the apparatus provided by Tarski’s definition of truth, and an object a and a predicate P such that a satisfies both P and ¬P. In the second part, I discuss what one must accept to be a dialetheist and what is required for dialetheism to be a plausible and interesting thesis. My conclusion is that dialetheism ends up being either a strong but implausible thesis about contradictions in extra-mental and extra-linguistic phenomena, or a weaker but interesting claim about contradictions produced by thought and language. https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/107886ContradictionsNegationsParaconsistencyDialetheism
spellingShingle Abilio Rodrigues
What is this thing called dialetheism?
Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology
Contradictions
Negations
Paraconsistency
Dialetheism
title What is this thing called dialetheism?
title_full What is this thing called dialetheism?
title_fullStr What is this thing called dialetheism?
title_full_unstemmed What is this thing called dialetheism?
title_short What is this thing called dialetheism?
title_sort what is this thing called dialetheism
topic Contradictions
Negations
Paraconsistency
Dialetheism
url https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/107886
work_keys_str_mv AT abiliorodrigues whatisthisthingcalleddialetheism