Dumas de Demain: The French Literary Magazine Vol. 7

evolving perception of gender)? I personally believe that yes, this can
happen, but it is a complex process, and, while it happens, it is hard
to see what will become integrated into everyday language and what
will not in the long term. It depends on users. I would be curious to
know if Kripke (or other analytic philosophers) considers terms such
as "man" or "woman" as rigid designators. . .
3. In Chapter 4, you describe Aristotle's principle of
noncontradiction –the existence of a science of being and its
attributes – as well as Aristotle's opponent, Amphibeston, whom he
introduces in order to argue that his principle is irrefutably correct.
How do you think Aristotle's opponent manifests itself in the
modern era where some things, via social media or otherwise, can
appear self-contradictory yet exist, nonetheless? In other words, do
modern technologies and the novel abilities to be dual to one's own
nature present new avenues or solidify the opponent's possible
refutation to the principle of noncontradiction?
The opponent as a troll? Or a blogger? Or an avatar? Or simply as
someone using social media? This would be an interesting new
chapter in the ongoing biography of Amphisbeton! But I will not
write it. I don’t think that social media and other technologies based
on computation and telecommunication change essentially the
question of contradiction as asked by Aristotle. But they may change
the way we perceive or practice contradiction. My position now is
that the principle of non-contradiction is a useful logical tool when
used in moderation, that is, when restricting "contradiction" to a
narrow meaning: I agree that at a given time I cannot be both sitting
and not sitting on this specific chair. Of course, I can be sitting on
this chair and imagining myself sitting on another chair, or doing
something completely different, but that would not be contradictory
in Aristotle's sense. Using different persona, saying one thing at some
point and the opposite later, feeling divided between various aspects
of oneself, or feeling made of different "selves" are not contradictory
in this narrow sense either. They are contradictory in a larger sense of
the term, which overlaps with terms like "ambiguity" and
"ambivalence". In short, as Aristotle prescribes, let's not be
contradictors in the dumb, narrow sense, but let's enjoy our many
contradictions in the larger, creative sense, as many writers, lovers,
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