Logics. The law of the excluded middle and its role in cognition (the most important)

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Logics. The law of the excluded middle and its role in cognition (the most important)

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6. THE LAW OF THE EXCLUDED THIRD AND ITS ROLE IN KNOWLEDGE

The law of non-contradiction applies to all incompatible judgments. It establishes that one of them must be false. The question of the second proposition remains open: it may be true, but it may also be false.

The law of the excluded middle applies only to contradictory (contradictor) judgments. It is formulated as follows: two contradictory propositions cannot be false at the same time, one of them must be true: a is either b or not-b. Either the statement of a fact is true, or its negation.

Contradictory (contradictory) are judgments, in one of which something is affirmed (or denied) about each object of a certain set, and in the other - something is denied (asserted) about some part of this set. These judgments cannot be both true and false: if one of them is true, then the other is false, and vice versa. For example, if the proposition "Every citizen of the Russian Federation is guaranteed the right to receive qualified legal assistance" is true, then the proposition "Some citizens of the Russian Federation are not guaranteed the right to receive qualified legal assistance" is false. Contradictory are also two judgments about one subject, in one of which something is affirmed, and in the other the same thing is denied. For example: "P. was brought to administrative responsibility" and "P. was not brought to administrative responsibility." One of these judgments is necessarily true, the other is necessarily false.

This law can be written as follows: р ∨ ⌉р.

Like the law of non-contradiction, the law of the excluded middle expresses the consistency, consistency of thinking, does not allow contradictions in thoughts. At the same time, acting only in relation to contradictory judgments, he establishes that two contradictory judgments cannot be not only simultaneously true (as indicated by the law of non-contradiction), but also simultaneously false: if one of them is false, then the other must be true, There is no third.

Of course, the law of the excluded middle cannot indicate which of these judgments is true. This issue is resolved by other means. The significance of the law lies in the fact that it indicates the direction in the search for truth: only two solutions to the problem are possible, and one of them (and only one) is necessarily true.

The law of the excluded middle requires clear, definite answers, indicating the impossibility of answering the same question in the same sense both "yes" and "no", the impossibility of looking for something in between affirming something and denying the same.

This law is of great importance in legal practice, where a categorical solution of the issue is required. The lawyer must decide the case in the form of "either - or." This fact is either established or not established. The accused is either guilty or not guilty. The law knows only: "either-or".

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