Found 1 items, similar to Principle of contradiction.
English → English (gcide) Definition: Principle of contradiction Principle \Prin"ci*ple\, n. [F. principe, L. principium beginning, foundation, fr. princeps, -cipis. See Prince.] 1. Beginning; commencement. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Doubting sad end of principle unsound. --Spenser. [1913 Webster] 2. A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause. [1913 Webster] The soul of man is an active principle. --Tillotson. [1913 Webster] 3. An original faculty or endowment. [1913 Webster] Nature in your principles hath set [benignity]. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] Those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication either of enjoyment or suffering. --Stewart. [1913 Webster] 4. A fundamental truth; a comprehensive law or doctrine, from which others are derived, or on which others are founded; a general truth; an elementary proposition; a maxim; an axiom; a postulate. [1913 Webster] Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. --Heb. vi. 1. [1913 Webster] A good principle, not rightly understood, may prove as hurtful as a bad. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 5. A settled rule of action; a governing law of conduct; an opinion or belief which exercises a directing influence on the life and behavior; a rule (usually, a right rule) of conduct consistently directing one's actions; as, a person of no principle. [1913 Webster] All kinds of dishonesty destroy our pretenses to an honest principle of mind. --Law. [1913 Webster] 6. (Chem.) Any original inherent constituent which characterizes a substance, or gives it its essential properties, and which can usually be separated by analysis; -- applied especially to drugs, plant extracts, etc. [1913 Webster] Cathartine is the bitter, purgative principle of senna. --Gregory. [1913 Webster] Bitter principle, Principle of contradiction, etc. See under Bitter, Contradiction, etc. [1913 Webster] Contradiction \Con`tra*dic"tion\, n. [L. contradictio answer, objection: cf. F. contradiction.] 1. An assertion of the contrary to what has been said or affirmed; denial of the truth of a statement or assertion; contrary declaration; gainsaying. [1913 Webster] His fair demands Shall be accomplished without contradiction. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. Direct opposition or repugnancy; inconsistency; incongruity or contrariety; one who, or that which, is inconsistent. [1913 Webster] can he make deathless death? That were to make Strange contradiction. --Milton. [1913 Webster] We state our experience and then we come to a manly resolution of acting in contradiction to it. --Burke. [1913 Webster] Both parts of a contradiction can not possibly be true. --Hobbes. [1913 Webster] Of contradictions infinite the slave. --Wordsworth. [1913 Webster] Principle of contradiction (Logic), the axiom or law of thought that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time, or a thing must either be or not be, or the same attribute can not at the same time be affirmed and and denied of the same subject; also called the law of the excluded middle . Note: It develops itself in three specific forms which have been called the “Three Logical Axioms.” First, “A is A.” Second, “A is not Not-A” Third, “Everything is either A or Not-A.” [1913 Webster]