Thursday 21 January 2010

An Anthology Of Paradoxes

A paradox is something which is contrary to received conventional opinion; something which is apparently absurd but is or may be really true; a self-contradictory statement.

Like this one:
Which is better, eternal happiness or a ham sandwich? It would appear that eternal happiness is better, but this is really not so! After all, nothing is better than eternal happiness, and a ham sandwich is certainly better than nothing. Therefore a ham sandwich is better than eternal happiness.

Or this one:
Whenever Cellini made a sign, he inscribed a false statement on it, and whenever Bellini made a sign, he inscribed a true statement on it. You come across the following sign:

This sign was made by Cellini.
Who made the sign? If Cellini made it, then he wrote a true sentence on it - which is impossible. If Bellini made it, then the sentence on it is false - which is again impossible. So who made it?

An Anthology of Paradoxes.

1 comment(s):

Anonymous said...

paradoxes are really cool, but these are weak. The first one fails because the the foundational statement is really "there is nothing better than eternal happiness" I know its picky, but if your gonna play with grammar, than u have to play with all the rules.
The second paradox is weak because it leaves many unanswered questions. Maybe it isnt complete though. Who else is there making signs? could it be a third person. What are cellini and bellini's full names? Etc.
But what do i know...