paradox
Sign in to saveA paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion. A paradox usually involves contradictory-yet-interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time. They result in "persistent contradiction between interdependent elements" leading to a lasting "unity of opposites".
AI overview
A paradox is a statement that seems to contradict itself even though it may be based on valid reasoning and true facts. Paradoxes matter because they reveal contradictions in how we think about the world and can point to deeper truths by showing how seemingly opposite things can coexist and depend on each other.
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Article
18 sectionsContents
- Common elements
- Self-reference
- Contradiction
- Vicious circularity, or infinite regress
- Other elements
- Quine's classification<!--"Quine's classification of paradoxes", "Veridical paradox", and "Falsidical paradox" redirect here-->
- Veridical paradox
- Falsidical paradox
- Antinomy
- Ramsey's classification
- In medicine
- As an aspect of reality
- Teaching tool
- See also
- References
- Notes
- Bibliography
- External links
A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion. A paradox usually involves contradictory-yet-interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time. They result in "persistent contradiction between interdependent elements" leading to a lasting "unity of opposites".
In logic, many paradoxes exist that are invalid arguments, yet are nevertheless valuable in promoting critical thinking, while other paradoxes have revealed errors in definitions that were assumed to be rigorous, and have caused axioms of mathematics and logic to be re-examined. One example is Russell's paradox, which questions whether a "list of all lists that do not contain themselves" would include itself and showed that attempts to found set theory on the identification of sets with properties or predicates were flawed. Others, such as Curry's paradox, cannot be easily resolved by making foundational changes in a logical system.