In Metaphysics III, Chapter 4, Aristotle sets out and defends the Law of Non-Contradiction. The
arguments are, however, rather less satisfactory than one might have expected, given the
enormous historical influence the text has had. His major argument is a particularly tangled one,
and the others are often little more than throw-away remarks. This essay is a commentary on the
chapter, but its aim is less to interpret the text (though this is attempted too), than to see whether
there is anything that Aristotle could have meant that would have served his purpose. Whilst other
commentators have sometimes attempted this, they have always taken his conclusion to be
correct, even if his arguments were not; I do not. The commentary is therefore a confrontation
between Aristotle and modern dialetheism.