This is a generalisation of "The three sages"

On a hot summer day, n equally bright philosophers, tired from all that philosophising, were napping in an orchard. A prankster came by, and painted all of their faces black with charcoal.

When the philosophers woke up, they started laughing at the others... until they suddenly realised all of their faces must be black!

How did they come to that conclusion?

there are 2 philosophers. nothing seems to say here must be more then two, so when the first person wakes up and sees his partner, he laughs. His partner then wakes up and laughs at him. If there were any other faces around, the first philosopher might assume his partner was laughing at another face, but because there was no other face to laugh at, the first philosopher realizes that his must be painted. The second philosopher comes to the conclusion the same way.

Posted by luke on 2004-04-27 23:01:48