Why can't humans believe contradictions?

Question

I'm reading something on the topic of **logic** and one of the exercises asked me to convince myself that a contradictory statement was true. I could not convince myself of this and now I am curious about whether this illustrates some innate characteristic of noncontradiction in the human mind.

Answer 1

It goes beyond convincing yourself a contradictory statement is true. You cannot even think a contradiction. You can string the words together in your head, but they won't have any meaning as a statement. Like this: Think of a square circle. A geometric figure that satisfies both definitions in Euclidean space. It's not a thing. You can't think it.

It's a really cool topic, the limits and nature of the mind. We can schedule a lesson if you would like to dig deeper.

Answer 2

Because in a proof by contradiction, the premise is ASSUMED to be true.

This FALSE information leads to the contradiction which then shows the truth.

EX. Prove: The sum of an even and an odd number is odd.

Let x be even and y be odd. Then x = 2m and y = 2n+1 for integers m and n.

SUPPOSE the sum is EVEN.

THEN x + y = 2t for integer t.

2m + y = 2t

y = 2t - 2m which is even.

This is a contradiction, because y is GIVEN to be odd.

Therefore, the supposition that the sum is EVEN is FALSE.