What does paradox mean?

OCR

I never tell the truth...

Or, more correctly, the statement... "this sentence is false." ← (link, btw)

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liar-paradox/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes


I've always thought paradoxes are rather interesting... some, more than others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_of_time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel

Even though Time's Arrow was one of the best, I could never quite figure out how Data could have two heads... relatively speaking, that is.



OCR

Vorde

It is an apparent paradox, it is not a paradox. When you look closely at the situation it turns out the paradox disappears.

Paradoxes pop up all the time in hypothetical situations and philosophical musings (like the links posted above me). They do not show up in physics and math. In physics a paradox tells you that either you're not thinking of everything or your theory is wrong/incomplete, and in fact in math paradoxes are commonly used to prove the nonexistence of things. That's called a proof by contradiction and they are very common.

sophiecentaur

I think it would be safe to say that all Scientific 'paradoxes' can be resolved by widening the way they're looked at. Something else (like an expanding Universe) needs to be added to the scenario and the paradox collapses. - relief all round when that happens.