I Am a Liar | Clipmarks


	I Am a Liar

Rustee

8-6-2009 10:35 PM

141 views

tags:

paradox, logic, reason

Rustee says:

I began by saying, "I am a liar." But if I am, then you have to negate the sentence. I am in fact a truth teller. But if I'm a truth teller, that means I am in truth a liar.

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8-6-2009 10:40 PM

Rustee

Take the the paradox of the "Surprise Execution": On Saturday, the judge finds a prisoner guilty and condemns him to be
hanged. He says, "The hangman will arrive in your cell on one of the next seven days to take you away. I won't tell you when. His arrival will be a complete surprise."

Then, the prisoner realizes he can't be hanged next Saturday, because, if he hasn't yet been hanged on one of the first six days, the hangman's arrival on Saturday will be no surprise.

But wait: since he ruled out Saturday, a Friday
hanging couldn't be a surprise after Thursday. T...

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/1bf3eb78-d3d1-4d9e-8d42-d2d0eeb5f8e4/230127B0-D326-4A7E-9BBD-FDB80CAA9CA8/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1081.htm" href="http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1081.htm" style="font-size: 11px;">www.uh.edu</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1081.htm"><FONT size="+2">P</FONT>aradoxes reveal skeletons
                in the closet of reason</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1081.htm">They expose how logic lies at the mercy of
                the circularity of language.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1081.htm">A better
                way of looking at it is that what one person knows
                to be true, another does not.
              </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1081.htm"><P>
                Perhaps that's also at the root of the paradox in
                which Bill says, "Joe always lies," and Joe shoots
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                realize: if Joe's a liar, then Bill does not tell
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                And so mathematicians write books about paradoxes.
                For a computer engineer, logical paradoxes promise
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                Paradoxes do more than make nice games. They're
                profoundly important just because they expose
                skeletons in the closets of reason. They warn us
                what a minefield language is. The most minor
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