The Logic and Metaphysics Workshop will meet on November 3rd from 2:00-4:00 in-person at the Graduate Center (Room 8203) for a talk by Brad Armour-Garb (SUNY-Albany).

Title: A novel defense of legal gluts

Abstract: While Graham Priest is best known for taking dialetheia—true contradictions (that is, true statements whose negations are also true)—to emerge from the semantic paradoxes, he (1987/2006) has long maintained that the strongest case for dialetheism emerges from the possibility of legal gluts—dialetheia that incorporate some aspect of law. This contrasts with a point made by JC Beall—that the only dialetheia arise from the semantic paradoxes. Priest argues for the possibility of legal gluts, rather than arguing for their actuality, by relying on hypothetical cases and arguing for their plausibility. Beall disputes Priest’s argument for their possibility and argues that they are in fact impossible. In my talk, after setting out assumptions that serve as “common ground” for the current debate, and briefly summarizing arguments for and against their possibility, I show that Beall’s argument against Priest does not work. I then develop a novel argument for their possibility and, time permitting, go further than Priest by making a case for the actuality of legal gluts.