This Sentence is False: An Introduction to Philosophical Paradoxes PDF
Preview This Sentence is False: An Introduction to Philosophical Paradoxes
This Sentence is False AlsoavailablefromContinuum: ABriefHistoryofPhilosophy,DerekJohnston AtoZofPhilosophy,AlexanderMoseley HowtoMakeGoodDecisionsandBeRightAlltheTime,IainKing HowtoWinEveryArgument,MadsenPirie PhilosophyforLife,RupertReadandM.A.Lavery TheGood,theTrueandtheBeautiful,MichaelBoylan ThisBookDoesNotExist,GaryHaydenandMichaelPicard ThisBookHasIssues,ChristianJarrettandJoannaGinsburg ThisIsNotaBook,MichaelPicard TwentyGreatestPhilosophyBooks,JamesGarvey WhatDon’tYouKnow?,MichaelC.LaBossier WhyTruthMatters,JeremyStangroomandOpheliaBenson This Sentence is False An introduction to philosophical paradoxes Peter Cave Continuum TheTowerBuilding,11YorkRoad,LondonSE17NX 80MaidenLane,Suite704,NewYork,NY10038 www.continuumbooks.com ©PeterCave2009 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproducedor transmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronicormechanical, includingphotocopying,recording,oranyinformationstorageorretrieval system,withoutpriorpermissioninwritingfromthepublishers. BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN:HB:978-1-8470-6219-2 PB:978-1-8470-6220-8 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress TypesetbyKennethBurnley,Wirral,Cheshire PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbytheMPGBooksGroup Contents Preface vii Acknowledgements xi 1 Welcometotherationalirrational–howtowin, howtostarve,andhowtopumpmoney 1 2 Toocleverbyone-half–or,atleast,one-eighth 18 3 Lather,rinse,repeat–‘repeat’didyousay? 34 4 Infinity:withoutend,withoutbeginning–yetwith aflea,aflyandabandit 52 5 Heapsandhaze,coloursandclocks–and1,001cats 70 6 Ravens,lotteries,medicalmatters–andagruesometale ortwo 91 7 Moralityandpolitics–blackmail,buck-passingand voting 108 8 EncounterswithGod–andhismysteriousways 129 9 Encounterswithourmysteriousways–love,luckandlife 147 10 Whentostop 168 Appendix1:Furtherreading 193 Appendix2:Notes,sourcesandreferences 195 Appendix3:Paradoxespurveyed 202 Bibliography 205 GeneralIndex 211 ForAngelaJoyHarvey, BlueS.,SilverS.,andparadoxicalliveseverywhere, withinandwithout. Preface Letusbehuman. WhenfirsttoldthattheEarthbothspinsandorbitstheSun,wemay find it paradoxical. After all, it looks as if just the Sun does the moving.Whenwelaterreflectthatthingswouldlookexactlyasthey do,withtheEarthorbitingasparadoxicallyclaimed,wemaystillfind its movement surprising, for we feel neither rushes of air nor sen- sations of dizziness – nor, for that matter, do we get anywhere. If governments tell us, ‘Don’t panic’, paradoxically we may feel well justifiedinpanic;and,onthosefewoccasionswhenahusbandbrings his wife chocolates and roses wrapped with loving smiles, paradox- icallyshemayquestionbothhusbandandwrapping. The above are not philosophical but everyday cases of paradox. They are simply instances of what at first seems unlikely, surprising or casually incongruous. Indeed, in 1616 a certain John Bullokar offeredasparadoxtheaffirmationthat‘theearthdothmooueround, and the heauens stand still’.Today most people accept that the evi- dence is in: the Earth both spins and orbits. Most of us recognize that, human that we are, the ‘Don’t panic’ injunctions may suggest events over which to panic – and when guilty behaviour is sensed, sensed because of chocolates and roses, the gifts paradoxically may stillpromotepeace. Incontrasttosuchexplicablesurprises,theparadoxesofthisbook arenearlyallphilosophical–oftenwithcontinuingdebateoverreso- lution.Manyareclassical;mostarewellknowntothephilosophical community, though a small number feature the author’s own spin. Theyembraceallthemainareasofphilosophy:frommetaphysics– thatis,understandingtheworld’snatureinmostgeneralterms–to vii viii Preface reasoningandknowledge,tovalueswithinmoralityandmorewidely. Indeed, paradoxes, generously understood and unlimited to the logical, offer excellent pathways into the philosophical activity. This is not surprising: key philosophical problems can be readily seenasparadoxicalorpuzzling. Iusetheterms‘paradox’and‘puzzle’moreorlessinterchangeably, butwhenlabellingIreserve‘paradox’forthosetraditionallyknownas such,with‘puzzle’or‘problem’fortherest–thoughthisisfarfrom definitive.To provide foci for discussion, some paradoxes are high- lighted in the text – and, when not too aberrant, I have resisted addingtheword‘paradox’toeachname. Withmanyoftheparadoxes,full-lengthbookscouldbewritten– and they have. While this book covers many, many paradoxes – includingvirtuallyalltheaccessiblekeyphilosophicalparadoxes–we journeyslowlyoversomeparadoxicalterrains,yetspeedacrossothers withlittlemorethanglimpses. Philosophical paradoxes fill this book, save that the last few thoughts of Chapters 1 and 6 outline a few probability ‘paradoxes’. They are included because we are often surprised by probability assessments, treating them as paradoxical. Humans typically reach mistakenconclusionsaboutwhatismore,orless,probable;yethere, once the mathematics is understood, there usually remains no dis- pute.Partlybecausecontroversydoesnotrageforthoseintheprob- abilityknow–andtheydonotimmediatelygeneratemorepuzzles– I do not view them as philosophical, hence their relegation to little morethanasides. Thisisanintroductoryworkwith,Ihope,lightnessoftouch,but also with notes to guide further and deeper reading.The aim is to encouragereflectionabouttheparadoxesandwhatliesbehind. The book is loosely arranged by means of types of underlying probleminthefirstsixchapters,withthesubsequentthreechapters orientatedtomorality,Godandtheselfrespectively.Thelastchapter brings together some themes, while adding further thoughts and paradoxes.Inphilosophytherearenosharpboundaries–‘allthings conspire’ is the ancient saw – so there is some arbitrariness in the groupings.Thereisaninterweavingofconcerns:laterchapterssome- Preface ix times loop round to problems of the earlier, and the last chapter explicitly does this.The endnotes cover more than references; they engageinalittlegossipandafewadditionalparadoxes. Althoughthebookistentativeabouttheresolutionofsomepara- doxes, with regard to others I quote the splendid and well-rounded JohnMaynardKeynes:‘...theauthormust,ifheistoputhispoint ofviewclearly,pretendsometimestoalittlemoreconvictionthanhe feels’. To the extent that there is a theme for paradoxical resolution in thiswork,itisthedictum,‘Letusbehuman’–adictum,inoneway or another, found in philosophers as diverse as Spinoza, Hume, KierkegaardandWittgenstein.Weoftenforgetlife’sdifferentcolours and shades of grey, mistakenly seeking the black and white, the Yes/Noanswers.Weoftenforgetthat,whenapplyingabstractreason- ingandconceptstotheworld,restraintisrequired. We live, argue and reason on Earth, not in abstract heavens. Philosophycanofferreminders.
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