7

1908 Oct 28
Logic
12

dictory predicates one is true of it and the other untrue of it.

You cannot as yet see it, but you will see, before I have done, that
we have here taken the first step toward the solution of our problem. We
certainly do not say that Ens necessarium is Nothing: we say that it is
incomprehensible and not to be met with in the world. As for Nothing, it
is, of course, Nothing; yet it is also something. namely, a nameable idea
of an idea. If you say that there is no sense, no information, in what I
have been setting down writing; that is mere manipulation of words, I
applaud your observation. It had to be such, in order to be pertinent
to our problem, as you will see, as we go on.

Meantime, let me set down a few definitions. By the Principle of
Contradiction, accurate writers for nearly two centuries have understood
the principle that a pair of contradictory predicates, such as