Is Life a Law of Excluded Middle?

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In Aristotelian Logic, there is a Law of Excluded Middle which says, "A Thing can either BE or NOT BE at a given point in time. There is no intermediate possibility". Does this apply to Life too? Many situations we face everyday where we have to make a choice or take a side. Is it agree-able to take neither? Not exactly to just sit on the fence (as that will make the case of an indifferent observer) but to rather choose a middle path.

Take a case of the plethora of rules we face in all aspects of life - rules that government imposes on us, norms that society has laid down, ways that religion bestows upon us. What does one (one in the literal sense - a singular lone person) do when you can neither accept the rules/norms nor have the courage to stand up and defy them? Avoiding the situation altogether is not possible all the time.

Sometimes, its stirs up a corrosive internal conflict - a battle - between an insurmountable cowardice and a defiant individuality. What does one do to find a solution in the middle of a clouded mind and ever increasing pressures of trying to be a 'non-conformist'?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is not possible all the time to agree to everything neither does all have the face to defy the rules. Am sure most of the people want to take the middle path - "NOT REACT". It is a safe path according to me. But this option also cannot be taken every time. We are in a world, where we will never be heard. One will be considered insane, stupid and coward if you defy or “NOT REACT”.

But according to me, If you take this option "NOT REACT", It does not mean considering oneself to be coward or non-conformist. It shows how much of the freedom to express about the rule is curbed. When do you think to take an option “NOT REACT”? When you know defying about this rule is waste of an effort. Hence some are forced to agree, some defy for a while and then lose. Any rule that is going to be made has to be in the interest of every individual, which will not be the case all the time. We need not feel anything negative about staying in the middle path or just agree.

Anonymous said...

"When you know defying a rule is waste of an effort" gives a very precise case that is the big bane of today's world. Sometimes, one does feel invigorated to fight against an evil and try to correct it but can that inspiration still survive when you realize that people will find a way around whatever fix we try to put in place?

Its a world that frustrates you into becoming a coward.. :)

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