IS CHRIST REALLY CONTRADICTORY? SOME METHODOLOGICAL CONCERNS FROM THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

Abstract

: Two of the most important outcomes of The Contradictory Christ include: (i) identifying Christ as an unproblematically contradictory being as well as (ii) laying the foundations of an 1 This research was supported by the Programa Nacional de Pós-Doutorado PNPD CAPES (Brazil) and by the UNAM-PAPIIT Project IN403719 “Intensionalidad hasta el final: un nuevo plan para la relevancia lógica”. This work is the result of the book symposium on Jc Beall's The Contradictory Christ . investigation of the logical consequences of the existence of Christ, qua contradictory, within a particular 'theory'. In light of the enormous relevance of Beall’s The contradictory Christ for the study of inconsistency, my main concern here is to explore the effect of some methodological choices behind Beall’s proposal - this in order to recognize in more detail the scope of Beall’s contribution. To do so, I will focus on three main questions: 1. What is required for the identification of a contradiction? 2. How can we recognize a true contradiction from either an apparent or a temporal contradiction? 3. If we identify a true contradiction within a theory, where can we actually go from there?