Ex Falso Quodlibet
Filed Under (etcetera) by Don C on 02-10-2007
It is said that the famous logician Bertrand Russell was once trying to get across the point of Ex Falso Quodlibet at a public lecture when a heckler interrupted him. “So prove to me that if two plus two is five, I’m the Pope,” the heckler said.
Russell who was apparently very good at thinking on his feet replied: “Very well, from ‘two plus two equals five’ it follows, subtracting three from each side, that two equals one. You and the Pope are two, therefore you are one.”
