The Birth of Dialetheism

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to lay bare the roots of dialetheism in discussions about dialectics and dialectical logic at the time of the first development of paraconsistent logics. In other words, this essay is the attempt to write the first step of a history of dialetheism. I consider, first, the logico-philosophical terrain in which dialetheism was born: the discussions on what was called at that time ‘dialectical logic’ and its relation to paraconsistent logic. Second, I highlight what I define a dialectical turn in Richard Routley’s thought. Third, I consider Graham Priest’s arrival to Australia, which goes hand in hand with the beginning of a longstanding collaboration and friendship with Routley, and provides the conditions for the introduction of the new word at the beginning of the 1980s. I conclude with some reflections about what happens when a new word enters the philosophical world: what is made possible by the new presence? But also: what can get lost, and how can what was lost be recuperated?