History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps HoP 180 - Proof Positive - The Logical Tradition
Jun 16, 2014
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Nasruddin Tales Illustrate Paradoxes
- Peter Adamson recounts three Nasr-Adin Nasruddin jokes illustrating logical puzzles and paradoxes.
- The king story exemplifies the liar paradox where truth and falsehood reverse on execution or release.
Liar Paradox Defined And Historically Focused
- The liar paradox arises when a statement is true iff it is false, producing a logical contradiction.
- Islamic thinkers became intensely fascinated by this problem from the 9th century onward.
Self-Reference Is The Core Problem
- Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (Atuzzi) located the liar paradox in self-reference rather than the speaker's honesty.
- He argued self-referential sentences aren't about anything else, so truth and falsity supposedly don't apply.