Paradox Lost: Logical Solutions to Ten Puzzles of Philosophy

278 Pages·2018·2.53 MB·English

by  Michael Huemer

m i c h a e l h u e m e r
PARADOX LOST
Logical Solutions to Ten Puzzles of Philosophy
Paradox Lost
Michael Huemer
Paradox Lost
Logical Solutions to Ten Puzzles
of Philosophy
Michael Huemer
Philosophy Department
University of Colorado Boulder
Boulder, CO, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-90489-4 ISBN 978-3-319-90490-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90490-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018942225
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For those to whom this book is dedicated
Preface
I wrote this book because I like paradoxes … but even more than para-
doxes, I like solutions. If you like such things too, then you might enjoy
this book. I have offered my solutions to ten of what I found to be par-
ticularly fascinating and mind-boggling philosophical paradoxes. I hope
that when you read the paradoxes, you feel puzzled and challenged, and
that when you read the solutions, you feel a sense of things falling into
place. In some cases, I hope you also come away with philosophically
significant lessons.
I have written this book in such a way that, I hope, the generally edu-
cated reader can follow it. That is, although I assume you are generally
smart and educated, I do not assume that you have read any of the litera-
ture on the paradoxes, nor any other specialized literature. Thus, I explain
each paradox as if you don’t know what it is. When I want to address an
idea that other philosophers have advanced, I explain that idea. I have
made my explanations as clear and concise as I knew how to do, hoping
neither to confuse you nor to waste your time. Complications and quali-
fications, as well as references to the literature, appear in footnotes.
At the same time, I have tried to write something of interest to profes-
sional philosophers. In many cases, my take on a paradox is distinctive
and unorthodox. (If not for this, I would not have been motivated to
write the book.) This is true particularly for chapters 2, 3, 6, 8, and 10.
vii
viii Preface
Academic authors routinely overestimate their audiences – whatever
our topic, we tend to vastly overestimate both the number of people
interested in it, and the level of background knowledge people have about
it. I think we overestimate the knowledge and interest even of other aca-
demics. (This involves a certain failure of reflection – we know, or should
know, that our own knowledge of almost every other subject is minimal,
yet we fail to consider that almost everyone else has about the same level
of knowledge of our area of specialization.) Thus, there are many books
that can only be usefully read by a handful of people in the world. I wrote
this book in the way that I did because I wanted to make an intellectually
valuable contribution, without adding to the stock of nearly-unread aca-
demic volumes. That is why it is as complex as it is, and why it is not
more complex.
Now I would like to thank several other thinkers for discussion of
some of the ideas in this book, including Iskra Fileva, Randall
McCutcheon, Roy Sorensen, Eddy Chen, Christian Lee, Sam Director,
David Barnett, Ari Armstrong, an anonymous referee for Palgrave, and
the philosophers at the University of Vermont (to whom I presented
chapter 3). Without their help, this book would be worse than it is.
Naturally, none of these people can be blamed for any errors that remain.
In the preface to my last book, I laid the blame for any errors on my PhD
advisor, Peter Klein. I now realize that this was unfair and highly inap-
propriate. So I want to be clear that Peter is not to blame for the errors in
this book. Of course, the blame for any errors falls entirely on my research
assistant, Jasmine Carter, and my former student Matt Skene. I specifi-
cally instructed them to correct all errors in the manuscript. I thank them
for their comments, and I will graciously accept their apology for my
mistakes.
Fortunately, however, if the sentence you are now reading is true, then
there are no errors in this book.
Boulder, CO, USA Michael Huemer
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Part I Semantic Paradoxes 15
2 The Liar 17
3 The Sorites 45
Part II Paradoxes of Rational Choice 89
4 Th e Self-Torturer 91
5 N ewcomb’s Problem 107
6 Th e Surprise Quiz 133
7 Th e Two Envelopes 149
Part III P aradoxes of Probability 159
8 Th e Principle of Indifference 161
9 The Ravens 203
10 Th e Shooting Room 209
11 S elf-Locating Beliefs 219
12 Concluding Remarks 245
Index 255
ix
Analytical Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 What Is a Paradox? 1
Paradoxes are robust, widespread intellectual illusions
in which seemingly compelling reasoning generates an
absurd or contradictory conclusion.
1.2 What Is a Solution? 5
A solution should dispel the illusion, so that the
paradoxical reasoning no longer seems compelling.
1.3 How to Seek Solutions 7
We should not expect a common approach to apply
to all paradoxes – but self-evident principles such
as those of classical logic must always apply.
1.4 Why Paradoxes? 10
Paradoxes are charming, fun, and may reveal deep
confusions about important philosophical matters.
1.5 Paradoxes Not Covered 11
I address only philosophical paradoxes that do
not depend on controversial views and that I have
not previously addressed.
xi
xii Analytical Contents
2 The Liar 17
2.1 The Paradox 17
The liar sentence, “This sentence is false”, is apparently
both true and false.
2.2 A Third Truth-Value 18
Some say the liar sentence is “indeterminate”.
But what about the sentence, “This sentence is false or
indeterminate”?
2.3 True Contradictions 19
The view that there are true contradictions is confused.
2.4 Meaninglessness 22
Perhaps the liar sentence is meaningless for one
of the following reasons.
2.4.1 Self-Reference 23
Due to self-reference? But there are benign cases
of self-reference.
2.4.2 False Presupposition 24
Due to containing a false presupposition?
But we can easily remove the putative
presupposition.
2.4.3 Lack of Communicative Use 25
Because it cannot be sincerely asserted? But other
paradoxical sentences can be sincerely asserted.
Because it cannot be used to convey information?
But very similar sentences can be so used.
2.5 Putting the Blame on Truth 26
Some say that there is something wrong with the general
concept of truth. But this approach is self-undermining
and rules out too many innocent sentences.
2.6 A Solution 29
2.6.1 An Inconsistent Language 29
Our language contains inconsistent rules for
how to interpret certain sentences, which results
in sentences with no propositional content.
2.6.2 Meaning Deficiency 32