Contra principia negantem non est disputandum

History

The maxim cannot be found in Aristotle, though scholars have pointed to some Aristotelian passages that approach it in spirit. It is sometimes said to have been used in Medieval scholastic philosophy to refer to the authority of the Aristotelian system. Duns Scotus concludes one passage of his commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences with the statement, "If this argument is not convincing, many principles supposed by the philosophers are called into doubt; and against one who denies commonly accepted principles, discussion is impossible (contra autem negantem principia communiter recepta, non est disputandum).

The maxim is sometimes cited from the seventeenth-century English legal treatise, Coke on Littleton (Co. Litt. 343), where it explains the notion of a "maxime in law."

The maxim was used in Daemonologie written by King James VI of Scotland and I of England in the first question of the first book: "But I thinke it the difficiller, since ye denie the thing it selfe in generall: for as it is said in the logick schools, Contra negantem principia non est disputandum. Alwaies for that part, that witchcraft, and Witches haue bene, and are, the former part is clearelie proved by the Scriptures, and the last by dailie experience and confessions."