Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Antinomy
/ænˈtɪnəmi/noun
A contradiction between two conclusions that each appear to be soundly proved.
The Greek roots
ἀντί
antí
against, opposite
νόμος
nómos
law, custom
Literally: “law against law”
The story of the word
The word started as a lawyers' term for two statutes both valid, both binding, pointing opposite ways. Kant took it for something worse: four pairs of arguments about the world as a whole, where reason proves each side and has no way to choose. The world has a beginning in time, and the world has no beginning in time; both proofs hold, which for Kant showed that reason had walked past its own limits.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
autonomyastronomyeconomyantinomian
In a sentence
He called the rule an antinomy and refused to apply either half of it.