Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T21:14:40.073Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Appendix I - Some more paradoxes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

R. M. Sainsbury
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Get access

Summary

(An asterisk before a title indicates that there is an observation on the entry in Appendix II.)

THE GALLOWS

The law of a certain land is that all who wish to enter the city are asked to state their business there. Those who reply truly are allowed to enter and depart in peace. Those who reply falsely are hanged. What should happen to the traveler who, when asked his business, replies, “I have come to be hanged”?

٭BURIDAN'S EIGHTH SOPHISM

Socrates in Troy says, “What Plato is now saying in Athens is false.” At the same time, Plato in Athens says, “What Socrates is now saying in Troy is false.” (Cf. Buridan, in Hughes 1982, pp. 73–9).

THE LAWYER

Protagoras, teacher of lawyers, has this contract with pupils: “Pay me a fee if and only if you win your first case.” One of his pupils, Euathlus, sues him for free tuition, arguing as follows: “If I win the case, then I win free tuition, as that is what I am suing for. If I lose, then my tuition is free anyway, since this is my first case.”

Protagoras, in court, responds as follows: “If you give judgment for Euathlus, then he will owe me a fee, since it is his first case and that was our agreement; if you give judgment for me, then he will owe me a fee, since that is the content of the judgment.

Type
Chapter
Information
Paradoxes , pp. 160 - 167
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Some more paradoxes
  • R. M. Sainsbury, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Paradoxes
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812576.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Some more paradoxes
  • R. M. Sainsbury, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Paradoxes
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812576.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Some more paradoxes
  • R. M. Sainsbury, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Paradoxes
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812576.010
Available formats
×