Original scientific paper
The Barber Paradox: On its Paradoxicality and its Relationship to Russell’s Paradox
Jiri Raclavsky
; Department of Philosophy, Masaryk University, Arne Novaka 1, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Abstract
The Barber Paradox is often introduced as a popular version of Russell’s paradox, though some philosophers and logicians (e.g. Church) have denied their similarity, even calling the Barber paradox a pseudoparadox. In the first part of the paper, we demonstrate mainly that in the standard (Quinean) definition of a paradox the Barber paradox is a clear-cut example of a non-paradox. In the second part of the paper, we examine a probable source of the paradoxicality of the Barber Paradox, which is found in a certain ambivalence in terms of meaning. The two different readings of the crucial phrase yield distinct existential assumptions which produce the paradoxical conclusion.
Keywords
Degrees of paradoxicality; pseudoparadoxicality; Russell’s paradox; the Barber paradox
Hrčak ID:
129626
URI
Publication date:
19.11.2014.
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