Modern logic often has an axiom that an entity A cannot also be not-A.
Prehistoric logic might not have thought this so self evident. What did antiquity see as self evident? Coming-into-Being and Passing-out-of-Being were probably so, reflected in myriads of stories about Creation, Birth, and Death.
We might state this as: "If A, then possibly not-A". We could re-state this as "not-A or not-A" which is a tautology and really does not do the trick. So we are left with "A and not-A", since "A or not-A" is also tautologous.
Of course, prehistoric logic was never so discrete and "punctuated" as is our logic. It was a flow logic that was made up from the grammar of live images. Imagine, if you will, creating a system of logic from the films of Francois Truffaut using only the images as symbols. Then you would get close to the experience.
I'm curious. Did you get my email?
ReplyDeleteLet me check. I'll get back to you tonight or tomorrow morning.
ReplyDeleteI have had some issues with email, mostly due to my own nonsense.