The danger of catching nature in contradiction

Sava Petrov

pp. 3-15

in: Dimitri Ginev (ed), Bulgarian studies in the philosophy of science, Berlin, Springer, 2003

Abstract

I say "danger", taking into account the common attitude towards contradictions and antinomies, but at the same time, as an old-fashioned dialectician and even more in tune with paraconsistent logicians, I make the implicit assumption that it would give a chance to the cause of Heraclitus — Hegel. This far-reaching philosophical hypothesis assumes that some of the contradictory and antinomic propositions we come across in rather immature scientific theories, are likely to be relatively objective truths. The concerned claims are very few indeed and mostly connected with self-reference or an intuitive expression of a state of change, but their interpretations in the sense of Heraclitus — Hegel would restrict the law of non-contradiction and would supply grounds for a "dialectics of the impossible".

Cited authors

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Heraclitus