September 19-D, 2022

Wendell Johnson said that Aristotle realized that the citizens of Athens, 2500 years ago, acted as if three things were so, and Johnson labels them, “The law of Identity" (A is A and not B,C, D etc.). “The Law of The Excluded Middle" (A thing is either A or Not-A). And “The Law of Non-Contradiction" (A thing cannot be A and Not-A).

Johnson says these three laws constitute what we call “common sense,” and form the foundation upon which people do business with one another worldwide.

These laws also describe a world of duality, that is, a world in which A can only be what it is and not anything other than what it is, although characteristics of A may well apply to B, C, D etc.  For example, the races of homo sapiens appear to be quiet different from each other, while, at the same time all belong to the same species.

Differences can disappear or appear, depending upon how we view what we look at, and may not actually be differences at all. Waves and particles have a tendency to be what they do not appear to be and to be where they have no business being.

If Aristotle were making observations today, he would have to rearrange his "laws of physics" to reflect a world quite different from the one he lived in.

How flat was the world in Aristotle's day? The way things appear isn't necessarily the way things are. Questioning appearances and assumptions, inferences and logical deductions, opens closed worlds and introduces observers to possibilities they might not otherwise consider. 

Question everything. Assume nothing. Nothing is what it seems to be.