ABSTRACT
The "creative" quality of essentially oxymoronic concepts has been used since time immemorial in art, magic or mysticism as the forerunners of today's concept of science. Given the trends of overregulation and a creeping juridification, the sheer and still growing number of oxymoronic concepts in all areas of life also means they are playing an increasing role in law. Moreover, antagonistic concepts often match or resemble the terminology coined by poets and follow the wider trend of the ever faster changes in language, mainly through neologisms and semantic change. Essentially oxymoronic concepts function like a mirror of deficiencies rooted in dualistic thinking and in the binary logic taught in schools and universities. For a while still science may progress more by funerals than by reason and logic, as Dean Radin wrote. Artistic creativity, scientific discovery or the study of koans, as the Eastern oxymora, all testify to such dynamics described by and inherent in essentially oxymoronic concepts.
