epätautologinen

epätautologinen is a Finnish term that translates to "non-tautological" or "non-tautology" in English. In logic and philosophy, a tautology is a statement that is true by definition or by virtue of its logical form alone, regardless of the truth values of its constituent propositions. For example, "It is raining or it is not raining" is a tautology.

A statement or argument that is epätautologinen, therefore, is one that is not a tautology. This means its truth or falsity is not predetermined by its logical structure or by semantic necessity. Instead, its truth value depends on the actual state of affairs in the world or on the specific meanings of its terms. For instance, the statement "The sky is blue" is epätautologinen because its truth depends on the observable color of the sky.

In everyday language, the term epätautologinen can be used to describe something that is not obvious, redundant, or self-evident. It implies that a statement or idea offers new information or a perspective that requires some consideration or empirical verification. Conversely, something that is tautological might be seen as uninformative or stating the obvious. The concept is useful in distinguishing between statements that are trivially true and those that carry genuine propositional content.