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Jayson_Virissimo comments on Paraconsistency and relevance: avoid logical explosions - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 04 April 2012 11:57AM

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Comment author: Jayson_Virissimo 05 April 2012 09:58:16AM *  1 point [-]

Did everyone else's first year maths lecturer prove that if 1=0, then they were Brigitte Bardot? (We all applauded at the end of the proof.) Now that's how to hammer home the point of a logical explosion from a false statement.

A false statement isn't sufficient to obtain logical explosion, but it is necessary. Most likely, you are referring to a "proof" that introduces a premise that contradicts an earlier stated premise without any of the students noticing (which is a very cool trick indeed). Contradictory premises are necessary and sufficient to obtain logical explosion.

Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 05 April 2012 02:26:15PM 0 points [-]

Most likely, you are referring to a "proof" that introduces a premise that contradicts an earlier stated premise without any of the students noticing (which is a very cool trick indeed).

If it's like the "I am god" trick, then the contradiction is using both 1=1 and 1=2 at the same time.