Logical Paradoxes and Their Resolutions Logical paradoxes are arguments that have logically unreasonable or self-contradictory conclusions despite seemingly sound reasoning from true premises. Three logical paradoxes, the paradox of Epimenides the Cretan, Jourdain’s card paradox, and the barber paradox, will be discussed. The paradox of Epimenides the Cretan is a paradox of contradiction. The barber paradox is a paradox of self-reference, or in other words the statement is referring to itself. Jourdain’s card paradox is a non-self-referential, circular reference paradox, which involves a series of references where the last object references the first, resulting in a closed loop. The paradox of Epimenides the Cretan has two statements: 1) …show more content…
Answering the question results in a contradiction. The barber cannot shave himself if he only shaves those who do not shave themselves. Consequently, if he shaves himself, we would no longer be a barber. If the barber does not shave himself, then he fits into the group of people who do not shave themselves, so he would have to shave himself. The problem with the barber paradox is that it is not actually a paradox in the true sense of the word, as a man who shaves exactly those men who do not shave themselves cannot and does not exist. A resolution for this paradox is possible if it were altered so that there are multiple barbers, depending on the phrasing of the initial rules. If the initial rules state that every man in town must keep himself clean-shaven, either by 1) shaving himself or 2) going to a barber (but not both at once), then the paradox is solved. Each barber can be shaved by another …show more content…
Suppose the front side of the card states “The sentence on the other side of this card is TRUE”, and suppose the back side of the card states “The sentence on the other side of this card is FALSE”. If the first statement (front side statement) is true, then so is the second. But if the second (back side statement) is true, then the first statement is false. From this line of logical reasoning the conclusion is that if the first statement is true, then the first statement is false. If the first statement is false, then the second is false as well. But if the second statement is false, then the first statement is true. From this line of reasoning the conclusion is that if the first statement is false, then the first statement is true. The same mechanism of assigning truth values can be applied to the second statement. Every case of assigning truth values leads to a paradox. This is a true paradox and does not have a
During the land of Cathy merchants, they must be willing to adapt to the community. In the book the human record Pegolotti states that “In the first place, you must let your beard grow long and not shave, (HR, p.397) this explain how they all present themselves
A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself. After Guitar suspect that Milkman has taken and hidden the gold, Guitar feels betrayed by Milkman. When Milkman is in Shalimar, Guitar leaves a message warning Milkman that he is going to kill him. The conversation between Guitar and Milkman is paradoxical because a best friend would not try to kill you, and an enemy would not help and warn another enemy.
In order to understand the concept of Moore’s Paradox, we must first assess and understand the behavior of logical and performative contradictions. Credited for devising and examining this paradox, George Edward Moore, a British philosopher who taught at the University of Cambridge and studied ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics describes the paradox in its omissive and commissive forms in which we will discuss thoroughly. I will then express my standpoint on which solution is the most optimal choice for Moore’s Paradox in order to analyze and explain why I believe my solution is superior to other solutions. I will also discuss any issues that arise
Contradictions are ideas or statements that oppose one another, such as paradox and irony. Paradox means that a statement contradicts itself, which may or may not be true; while irony is when you say one idea but mean another. For instance, The Declaration of Independence is one example which Americans show their contradictions. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “All men are created equal” at the same time Americans had slaves in their possession which evoked all African-Americans to obtain any natural rights as indicated in The Declaration of Independence (194). In addition, the paradox involved with this statement is a reason, which makes this country a travesty. All of these writers relate to The Declaration of Independence when dealing with contradictions
“Shaving” is a short story about a teenage boy who shaves his dying father. Throughout this story, there are many lines of dialogue, and although they may seem simple at first, most of them have a profound deeper meaning. For example, near the beginning of the book, where his father stays to Barry that “You could have used electric razor, I expected that.” Barry replies by saying that “You wouldn’t like it, you’ll get a closer shave this way.” In this quote, what they talk about on the surface is fairly obvious, the quality of the shave ad the razor. However, beneath the surface of this quote lies a much deeper meaning. Barry uses a real razor instead of an electric one, which shows not only his confidence in shaving skills, but also the fact that he has taken the family matters into his own hands, as to put his father into such danger like that, as
Logic affects our lives everyday. We use it both subconsciously and consciously to make decisions which can be as important as our careers, or as insignificant as what to eat for lunch. Logic can also be used in other ways. Ironically, others’ bad logic can result in us learning something just as much as we learn from our own bad decisions. This is shown in Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail.
The paradox arises due to a number of assumptions concerning knowledge, inquiry and definition made by both Socrates and Meno. The assumptions of Socrates are:
These statements assert that the negative ( or contradictory) of an alternative proposition is a conjunction which the conjuncts are the contradictions of the corresponding alternants. That the negative of a conjunctive is an alternative proposition in which the alternants are the contradictories of the corresponding conjuncts.
Each sex is treated differently for a naturally occurring body process. As discussed, body hair is viewed as masculine, leading to the assumption that women should be hairless and men should wear their body hair with pride. It is clear that society uses hair to label individuals as either male or female (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). In addition, male hair is associated with strength and power (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). So how come when women display body hair they are shamed, but men are encouraged to grow it? Hope (1982) elaborates that the term, “feminine, when applied to lack of body hair, implies a child-like status, as opposed to the adult status afforded men” (as cited in Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). That being said, body hair is another way in which society ranks men as the superior gender by making women conform to the hairless normative. A study conducted by Tiggemann and Hodgson (2008), asked women why they practice hair removal. After completing a questionnaire with different statements to evaluate different factors such as normativity, sexual attractiveness, femininity and self-enhancement, they found significant support in all four types of factors for hair removal of the underarm, leg and pubic area. Additionally, they can found that one item pertaining to males preferring a hairless body, was the only one linked to two factors: normativity and sexual attractiveness. It is evident with their findings that women tend to follow the socially constructed normative for many reason, including to please men. The idea is that women have to change their bodies not only to be accepted by society, but they also do so to be accepted by men. Nonetheless, the must make is seem natural and effortless to uphold the beauty allure. In recent years, depletion of male body hair has become popular. In a study performed by Boroughs, et al. (2005), they found that men removed
Since the statement is not contradictory, the Cancellation test shows that statement (b) is not an entailment (a).
I liked the utilization of Russell’s theory to purport the solution for the paradox; however, there are some issues that I found in it. First, I did not understand why denying a description was different from denying a name, because the way I see it, a name is merely a description (as Quine said). Thus, I find myself agreeing with wyman. I believe, if there exists a world, which meets the conditions where a being such as Pegasus could live, and then Pegasus ought to be, regardless of his actualized existence. Pegasus is, then, as an unactualized possibility.
The law of excluded middle is the third of the three laws of thought first written down by Aristotle. The first law is the law of identity which states that everything is identical to itself and different from anything else. The second law is the law of non-contradiction which states that contradictory statements cannot be true and not true at the same time. The third and most controversial law is the law of excluded middle which states that every contradictory statement must either be true or false. This principle is widely used in exact sciences. There is, for example, the proof by contradiction. In a proof by contradiction one assumes that some proposition is false and shows that this leads to a contradiction. From this one concludes that the proposition must be true. The law of excluded middle is used in the following way. Because the proposition cannot be false it must be that the proposition is true. An example of a proof by contradiction is the following theorem due to Euclides [3].
In contemporary literary culture there is a widespread belief, or feeling, that ironies and paradoxes are closely akin. This is due in part to the huge importance that is given to the use of language in contemporary descriptions and estimations of literature. Ironies and paradoxes seem to reflect and embody the sorts of linguistic rebellion, innovation, deviation, and play, that have throughout this century become the dominant criteria of literary value.
To begin, “paradox” is defined by 3 ways: something false later seen to be true, something true later seen to be false, and self-contradictory. The first two definitions together only make the third one more evident as “paradox” is a paradox in itself. However, in Johannes Climacus/Soren Kierkegaard’s book “Philosophical Fragments”, paradox seems to mean the nature of self-contradiction. On page 37, Kierkegaard claims that “the paradox is the passion of thought…the thinker without the paradox is like the lover without passion” (Hong).
...rget about personal grooming, such as wearing deodorant, keeping hair neat and trimmed, this includes beards and mustaches as well.