Paradox

[Joel.Lion]

a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.
Have you guys/gals ever been exposed to a paradox? Such as; if you opened a wormhole that went back thirty seconds in time, and killed yourself, would you have never existed to go back and kill yourself, meaning you didn't do it so you still exist? Or would you cease to exist? Or would the fabric of space-time just collapse? Does anyone have any other situations that'd end in a logical paradox? (Other than quantum mechanics and general relativity)

 

[Ultramarine]

There the classic barber one.

Also if a liar claims to by lying, are they lying?

 

[Zise]

There the classic barber one.

Also if a liar claims to by lying, are they lying?

In order to figure that out, you first need proof of the liar actually being a liar before classing him as one. Otherwise, there's no liar but just someone who claims they're lying.

 

[darkredwing]

Paradoxes are fun, the question of time travel of course is always filled with possible paradoxes such as the grandfather paradox, which Joel basically described, but here was the original idea that would get your mind all worked up.
https://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/grandfather_paradox.html

The characters and events changed depending on who's discussing them but still its interesting thinking about.

 

[LoudSilence]

I love these; our brain is so binary when it comes to reality perception sometimes and it's fun seeing people get flustered over what they think is the "right way" to understand things. Consider this short paradox:

"This statement is false."

 

[Kanzler]

One of my favourite paradoxes is the Ship of Theseus. The original paradox goes (using Wikipedia to jog my memory :P):

The ship of the great hero Theseus was preserved by the Athenians as a museum piece. Over time, wear and tear broke down the ship, and the various planks and oars had to be replaced. Could the ship still be considered the Ship of Theseus, even though none of the original components remain? Thomas Hobbes took this paradox even further: what if we took all the crummy parts and built a new ship? Which one do we consider the Ship of Theseus?

It provokes you to question what identity is and juxtaposes changing with staying the same. I used to lose a lot of sleep over this stuff, but I came to the realization that it doesn't matter. Your identity doesn't matter - who cares if you change or stay the same? Just live life questioning everything - but even if you can't get answers you don't need answers. The challenge of resolving paradoxes adds life to life.

 

[LoudSilence]

The ship of the great hero Theseus was preserved by the Athenians as a museum piece. Over time, wear and tear broke down the ship, and the various planks and oars had to be replaced. Could the ship still be considered the Ship of Theseus, even though none of the original components remain? Thomas Hobbes took this paradox even further: what if we took all the crummy parts and built a new ship? Which one do we consider the Ship of Theseus?

It provokes you to question what identity is and juxtaposes changing with staying the same. I used to lose a lot of sleep over this stuff, but I came to the realization that it doesn't matter. Your identity doesn't matter - who cares if you change or stay the same? Just live life questioning everything - but even if you can't get answers you don't need answers. The challenge of resolving paradoxes adds life to life.

Damn that's a good one, but it seems like it only works with inanimate objects, right? People and animals aren't defined by their individual "parts" but rather as a whole, even if some bits need to be replaced :P

 

[Kanzler]

The paradox isn't a perfect analogy, but I was thinking about how people change in personality traits and interests over time. Over the course of high school and university especially - I guess my point is pretty age-related - some people radically change their personality, and some don't. Couple that with the identity crises that youth our age feel and you've got lots of lost sleep thinking about "who am I and where am I going?" Obviously for people you can't replace their parts, but I think the paradox shines a light on the tensions in defining one's identity. At the end of the day, my own resolution of the paradox is that there is no meaning, that all the conundrums over identity is superficial and vague - rather the merits of the object itself as it is should be valued over an abstract conceptualization of it. As a result I think I've lost some awareness to my own identity, I'm not so concerned about the question of "who am I" anymore.