Indeed, there is something about the phrase that doesn’t mean anything. Perhaps because contradiction exactly means ‘not possible’ (thus ‘not contained’). So that if there ever was a ‘contradiction’ actually realized in reality, then we would just need to look to reality to see how the ‘contradiction’ was possible after all.
A contradiction comes about when you have a list of things that are true (A=B, B=C, …) and somewhere in the list you find something (A~=C) that reduces to B=~B for some B.
Can a universe be possible where B and ~B are both true for some B?
Sometimes I feel like this is the universe we live in already, for exactly the kinds of things where “true” doesn’t mean anything. The ‘contradictions are impossible’ rule doesn’t apply to them. So, circularly, that’s why true doesn’t mean anything for them. So we might deduce something along the lines of truth and logic have meaning for a statement B IFF B and ~B are not simultaneously true/possible.
“Things” in reality aren’t “true” or “false” outside the context of specific logical tools. In particular, consistency is a property of (some of the) logical systems, considered as a good heuristic for developing ones that are interesting (formally, consistency alone doesn’t make a system “good”: indeed, a consistent system may even prove false formulas!). For logical systems, it does make sense to talk about which ones are consistent and which ones are not.
Here, again you say “contains contradictions”, as if it means anything.
Indeed, there is something about the phrase that doesn’t mean anything. Perhaps because contradiction exactly means ‘not possible’ (thus ‘not contained’). So that if there ever was a ‘contradiction’ actually realized in reality, then we would just need to look to reality to see how the ‘contradiction’ was possible after all.
A contradiction comes about when you have a list of things that are true (A=B, B=C, …) and somewhere in the list you find something (A~=C) that reduces to B=~B for some B.
Can a universe be possible where B and ~B are both true for some B?
Sometimes I feel like this is the universe we live in already, for exactly the kinds of things where “true” doesn’t mean anything. The ‘contradictions are impossible’ rule doesn’t apply to them. So, circularly, that’s why true doesn’t mean anything for them. So we might deduce something along the lines of truth and logic have meaning for a statement B IFF B and ~B are not simultaneously true/possible.
“Things” in reality aren’t “true” or “false” outside the context of specific logical tools. In particular, consistency is a property of (some of the) logical systems, considered as a good heuristic for developing ones that are interesting (formally, consistency alone doesn’t make a system “good”: indeed, a consistent system may even prove false formulas!). For logical systems, it does make sense to talk about which ones are consistent and which ones are not.