Questions tagged [paradox]
This tag is for arguments that produce an inconsistency with common sense.
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Alternativeness… or not?
We recognize as an axiom that events in our reality can occur in different ways.
It is about facts, models that combine facts and our reactions.
I call it alternativeness.
Here I will not ask: whether ...
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What the Preface paradox tells us about the principle of explosion
The Preface paradox (adopted on a classical logician): Imagine that a
classical logician has just written a textbook (on classical logic).
He has included many assertions in it and has thoroughly ...
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Problems with truth value gap theory against Strengthened Liar
I have been reading Burge's Semantical Paradox, Burge explains how gap theorists have trouble handling the Strengthened Liar, i.e.
β: β is not true
and there are two things I do not understand:
...
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“This sentence doesn't cohere with an ideal set of propositions.”
It seems that we can reflect on various theories of truth by using their definitions of truth predicates in the formulation of liar and honest sentences. For example, imagine, "This sentence ...
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Is “the only rule is there are no rules” a paradox?
There is a popular phrase called "the only rule is there are no rules." But if there are no rules, then how could this even be a rule?
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Reference needed: why is the Liar Paradox regarded as not important/fringe by some?
Most people, when first encountering the Liar Paradox, react in one of two ways. One reaction is not to take the Paradox seriously and say they will not reason any more about it. - Dowden, IEP article ...
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1answer
60 views
Combining the knower with other paradoxes
The knower paradox concerns a sentence such as, "This sentence is unknown." Now liar sentences can be paired with honest sentences, e.g. "This sentence is true." So suppose there ...
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Analysis of Liar-like sentences in fuzzy logic
Let t0 = FALSE and t1 = TRUE. In fuzzy logic, 0 or 1 can be switched out for any real number in the interval [0,1]. This lets us construct all manner of liar/honest-like sentences, ranging from, "...
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1answer
77 views
“Let this sentence be false.”
Oftentimes in arguments, we introduce sentences (or propositions?) via prescriptions like, "Let it be that..." or, "Assume that..." or so on. How would we introduce the liar ...
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334 views
What is the proper definition of a truth bearer? [closed]
By what criteria can we objectively divide expressions of language into:
(a) Possibly having truth value (a truth bearer).
(b) Impossibly having a truth value (not a truth bearer).
If we assume that ...
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1answer
61 views
how can one distinguish between disorder and the supernatural?
Many strange things happen to us when we are asleep.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk
...
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Do not understand Truth value gap theorists' response to the Strengthened Liar
Truth value gap theorists assert that the Liar sentence is neither true nor false - it has no truth value. But here comes my first question:
If we take a sentence's meaning to be its truth condition, ...
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1answer
192 views
Has there ever been a successful, philosophically defensible refutation of the Epicurean Paradox?
"God said it, I believe it, and that settles it", is the final refuge of faith-based rhetoric, not a viable philosophical position. Has any significant religious thinker of any stripe ...
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1answer
109 views
Are dichotomies that refer to real constructs incorrect? from Sorites paradox
The well known paradoxes that arise from defining terms with a strict binary classifications, such as the Sorites paradox (heap/not heap), show the absurdities resulting from a strict seperation ...
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2answers
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A variant question of the Liar paradox
This question is exercise 1 from Manuel Bremer's An Introduction to Paraconsistent Logics.
The question
Often the sentence given as the Liar example is "All Cretans are liars." said by a ...
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3answers
204 views
Why should we treat others as *always* rational when they are not?
In Kantian system, murdering is nonrational because it cannot become a universal law. Yet Kant insists that it's immoral to lie to murderers. This is the same with saying they are rational being, ...
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1answer
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What is the difference between Zeno's “Dichotomy” and Richardson's “Coast of England” paradox?
We assume, though I believe it can be debated, that Zeno's "Dichotomy" paradox is apparently "unreal." We can treat any given distance as the sum of an infinite regress of smaller ...
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Experiencing and sensing time dilation when a person dies and the logic of
It is well known that when a person goes to sleep, there are instances when we do not experience time which has phenomenological implications. There is a temporal discontinuity. It is also known that ...
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How do dialetheists determine which contradiction is true?
I have been reading a lot about dialetheism lately. I know for a fact that dialetheists do not believe that every contradiction is true. (Surely there is a difference between asserting that Liar is ...
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3answers
170 views
Maximizing expected value - “triple or nothing” on a fair bet
The "triple-or-nothing paradox" is that a game where I expect to increase my money (on average) at each stage ends up bankrupting me with probability 1 if I play long enough. However, the ...
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53 views
Is this a solution to one of Zeno's paradoxes?
I was inspired by this wikipedia article invoking a notion of a "Supertask" (informally, an infinite sequence of operations performed in a finite amount of time) to pose Zeno's paradox.
To ...
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1answer
110 views
What were the “paradoxes of Rousseau”?
John Stuart Mill (1859, On Liberty):
Thus, in the eighteenth century, when nearly all the instructed, and all those of the uninstructed who were led by them, were lost in admiration of what is called ...
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218 views
How narrow is the Measurement Problem in QM? [closed]
I realize that the "Measurement Problem" is an issue unique to the highly technical field of quantum mechanics. But is it ever discussed in philosophy in relation to more general issues of ...
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Do all paradoxes of naive set theory have something in common?
If P(x) is the formula "x ∉ x", then ...
the assumption that a set h has P(x) purity ...
(i.e. the assumption that for all t, if t∈h then P(t))
... implies that there exists a set k, where ...
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3answers
163 views
Do you create your own thoughts? [closed]
Once upon a time I came up with the following paradox:
Statement 1. I have freedom of will.
Statement 2. If I have freedom of will, then I create my own thoughts.
For example: I'm gonna think about ...
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1answer
55 views
Semantic rules overdetermine the truth value of Liar Paradox
I am reading Graham Priest's In Contradiction (p.14) and he mentioned that the semantic rules of 'this sentence' and 'is True' overdetermine and underdetermine the Liar Paradox and its counterpart ...
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1answer
158 views
Did the physicist Erwin Schrödinger deny that reality existed?
I was having a conversation with a biographer of Schrödinger about the physicist's works and philosophy. I asked him if he eventually accepted that his "Cat (mental) experiment" could be actually real,...
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1answer
49 views
How paraconsistent logicians solve the “Geach Paradox”?
Para consistent logic denies explosive law that (t and not-t) implies Y (Y is anything).
However,we could construct a sentence,given any sentence Y,
C (C is true) implies Y
and infering as ...
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3answers
220 views
Paradox: if people are too immoral to be left free in their choice, then why is democracy the solution?
I am asking if there are noted philosophers that have thought about the following paradox before, or something resembling it.
Democracy is seen here as a system in which a nation is governed by a ...
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107 views
Paradox of analysis - what's wrong with this solution?
Reading about the paradox of analysis here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_analysis
Instead of the brother=male sibling example given in the article, suppose we use "triangle" instead. So ...
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2answers
135 views
Where is the Liar Paradox?
How would one go about proving that the Liar sentence is paradoxical?
I ask because to me it obviously isn't one so I'd need a decent proof to change my mind. I've always been baffled as to why it's ...
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208 views
Do philosophers recognize a deeper problem behind issues like the Problem of the Criterion or the Munchausen Trilemma?
First off, I would like to make it clear that I'm not implying I discovered some secret knowledge about the problems mentioned in the title that has alluded other philosophers for the past 2000+ years....
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A Classical Notion of Dividing Travel Up into Infinite Divisions
1) A man wants me to go from a to b in a straight line.
2) Suppose he can, first he needs to go to (a-b)/2.
3) Suppose he can, secondly he needs to go to (a-b)/4.
4) There are infinitely many integers....
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5answers
183 views
Paradox of compromise illustrated by neighbours painting houses
If I remember correctly, there was a problem illustrating the paradox of compromise (and to some extent democracy?) where there are two neighbours that want to paint their houses.
They both want ...
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Can these selfreferential statements be rewritten as such?
This statement is a paradox = this statement is both true and false
this statement is a hypodox = this statement is either true or false
this statement is a contradiction/always false = this ...
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always false vs necessarily false , is it the same?
according to the basic tenets of classical propositional logic, contradictions are 'always false' tautologies 'always true'.
When it is extended to modal logic we have the notions of 'necessarily ...
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1answer
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Can it be rational to have beliefs one knows to be inconsistent?
It seems that the answer would be yes, especially when we think about the example of the preface paradox (authors stating in prefaces "the errors that are found herein are mine alone", i.e. believing ...
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1answer
176 views
How does supervaluationism resolve the Sorites paradox? Are there any problems with this resolution?
So I was reading about resolutions to the Sorites paradox, and I got most of them, but I didn't understand the one labelled supervaluationism. Would someone explain it to me in very basic terms please?...
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Solution to the Grandfather's paradox - Inverse reincarnation? [closed]
One of the premises of the grandfather paradox in time travel is that of inconsistency. I.e, going back in time to kill your grandfather or grandmother prevents your birth. The solution is simple, ...
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What qualifies as the solving of a paradox?
How/when and by what criteria is a paradox considered to be solved?
EDIT
I understand that rejecting a premise and/or finding a flaw in reasoning can be wholly subjective. Considering the "this page ...
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64 views
The future in the deflationary theory of truth
How does the deflationary theory of truth, which defines true and false in the following straightforward way
The proposition that p is true iff p.
The proposition that p is false iff p is not true.
...
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6answers
419 views
Liars paradox towards a solution?
This statement is not true
2.This statement is true only if true and not true.
(1) and (2) are clearly different sentences, but do they express the same proposition?
If yes, then it becomes clear ...
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1answer
43 views
How pardoxes relate to a theory's decidability and completeness
Would "this sentence is false" make a theory containing it both undecidable & incomplete, while "this sentence is unprovable" make a theory containing it incomplete(syntatically) but not ...
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1answer
108 views
Can we create a paradox of self-consciousness?
On the theme of Russell's paradox:
Does the set of all sets that do not contain themselves contain itself?
And the Barber's paradox:
Does a barber who shaves all men who do not shave themselves ...
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3answers
122 views
What is the justification for the claim that observing something that is both a raven and black increases the likelihood that all ravens are black?
Suppose that I have access to a machine that allows me to input a positive integer (perhaps up to ten decimal digits) and the machine will -- depending only on the input -- output a statement.
If the ...
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211 views
Although Russell's paradox has the virtue of simplicity, is it a distraction from other paradoxes of naive set theory?
Given that Russell's paradox exhibits a contradiction in naive set theory, the interpretation of the binary relation "∈" called "membership" (where the expression "x ∈ m" is pronounced as "x is an ...
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129 views
What is an example of a true contradiction in a paraconsistent logic?
While reading the Wikipedia article on trivialism I noticed the following:
In classical logic, trivialism is in direct violation of Aristotle's law of noncontradiction. In philosophy, trivialism is ...
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0answers
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A Paradox for Anti-Realism?
Semantic Anti-Realists hold that a claim has a (constructive) proof if the claim is true. I wonder whether this position runs into a version of Yablo's supposedly non-circular version of the liar ...
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Looking for existing discourse on the category of fallacies exemplified by “paradox of tolerance”
Popper coined the phrase "paradox of tolerance" when discussing how unlimited tolerance is self-contradictory (paradoxical) in that it precludes self-preservation (resisting intolerance). The seeming ...
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Did calculus solve Zeno's paradoxes [duplicate]
Let's start form two versions of Dichotomy paradox
Version 1: Anyone can't walk though any distance without walk though half of it and so on.
solution 0 (?) ... which is false I think, that's not ...
