Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking

by D.Q. McInerny

THE PRINCIPLE OF THE EXCLUDED MIDDLE Stated: Between being and nonbeing there is no middle state. Explanation: Something either exists or it does not exist; there is no halfway point between the two. The lamp sitting on my desk is either really there or it is not. There is no other possibility. We might ask: How about becoming? Isn’t the state of becoming between those of being and nonbeing? The answer is no. There is no such thing as just becoming; there are only things that become. The state of becoming is already within the realm of existence. A lamp in the process of being made is not yet a lamp; however, the parts that will go to compose it actually exist, and the lamp’s “becoming” depends entirely on their existence. There is, then, no becoming in the absolute sense, no passage from nonbeing to being. Elaine, who is becoming every day a more accomplished musician because of assiduous practice, could not be becoming a musician if she were not already Elaine. There is no becoming with respect to the very existence of a human person. Elaine is “becoming” relatively, not absolutely: She is not becoming Elaine; she is becoming Elaine the more accomplished musician. Again, the basic idea behind the principle of excluded middle is that there are no gaps in being. What we call “becoming” is not a passage from nonbeing to being, but an alteration in a thing or in things already in existence.