Questions tagged [paradox]
This tag is for arguments that produce an inconsistency with common sense.
213
questions
1
vote
1answer
56 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 ...
2
votes
0answers
32 views
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, "...
2
votes
1answer
72 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 ...
-2
votes
4answers
233 views
What is the proper definition of a truth bearer?
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 ...
0
votes
1answer
59 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
...
1
vote
0answers
52 views
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, ...
3
votes
1answer
100 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
107 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 ...
5
votes
2answers
165 views
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 ...
2
votes
3answers
201 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, ...
3
votes
1answer
78 views
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 ...
2
votes
0answers
43 views
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 ...
3
votes
0answers
53 views
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 ...
2
votes
3answers
142 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 ...
0
votes
0answers
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 ...
4
votes
1answer
97 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 ...
2
votes
0answers
217 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 ...
1
vote
0answers
99 views
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 ...
1
vote
3answers
150 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
51 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
140 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,...
0
votes
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 ...
2
votes
3answers
210 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 ...
1
vote
0answers
105 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 ...
0
votes
2answers
118 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
205 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....
-1
votes
1answer
50 views
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....
6
votes
5answers
178 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 ...
0
votes
0answers
24 views
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 ...
1
vote
2answers
530 views
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 ...
6
votes
1answer
104 views
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 ...
3
votes
1answer
128 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?...
1
vote
2answers
143 views
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, ...
4
votes
4answers
669 views
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 ...
1
vote
0answers
63 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.
...
-1
votes
6answers
415 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
42 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
102 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 ...
2
votes
3answers
121 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 ...
0
votes
3answers
209 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 ...
0
votes
3answers
124 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 ...
2
votes
0answers
49 views
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
86 views
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 ...
2
votes
0answers
76 views
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
249 views
The Sartre Paradox
"According to Sartre, humans are the only beings that dont have an essence."
Do't look a little "weird" J.P Sartre, tells that the "Man is comdemned to be free", in case conjuring that, the freedom ...
0
votes
2answers
126 views
Liar paradox from a different view/resolved?
Informally, the statement T:
T: "this statement is not both true and not true"
a) T is not true if and only if it is both true and not true
b) T is true if and only if it is not both true and not ...
1
vote
2answers
208 views
Does “Uncertainty is the only certainty” cause any paradox?
It seems to me that this avoids the self contradictory "everything is uncertain, even uncertainty" while allowing agnostic positions, by allowing only uncertainty as the only thing certain, sort of ...
1
vote
4answers
123 views
Russel's paradoxical set from a different view
Suppose naïve set theory, let's do a tought experiment:
Informally, let's define a set € such that € contains all the sets that don't contain themselves.(yes, all but not necessarily only those), ...
0
votes
0answers
58 views
An erotetic argument about the liar paradox
I noticed something about the liar paradox, when the liar sentences are taken as questions. Let’s start with the liar index, “This sentence is false.” Allow this to be questioned: “Is this sentence ...
1
vote
3answers
342 views
Is determinism logically flawed?
If determinism is true, every event shall have a cause.
So, what is the cause of the first event (which is the first cause)?
Conflict (paradox):
1) every event shall have a cause -> First event/...
