Rejection: Denial and Dilemmas

Abstract

The paper is about the notion of rejection, and its linguistic expression, denial. Following Frege, it is often supposed that to deny something is simply to assert its negation. This connection is contested, and some consequences of rejecting it are discussed, especially in connection with a dialetheic solution to the paradoxes of self-reference. The paper then goes on to discuss the connection between rejection and truth (more specifically, untruth). This raises the possibility that there are rational dilemmas, and the paper ends by discussing some examples of these.