Obviously the following statement is 'False':
"This sentence contains Seven words".

So we correct the sentence by changing it to:
This sentence does not contain Seven words".

We know that the First statement is False and so now can we conclude that the Second statement is True ?

The paradox seems to stem from the apparent contradiction between two statements about 'This sentence' being both false, inspite of saying exactly opposite things. In other words, how can an entity both not have and not not have a property at the same time.

However, the 'This' in the first sentence and the 'This' in the second sentence point to different things. The 'This' in the first sentence refers to the first sentence, which is false. And the 'This' in the second sentence refers to the second sentence, which is also false.

So all we have are two entities, one not possesing a property, and the other not possesing the exact opposite of that property.

Nothing paradoxical about that. It is entirely possibe for dogs to not have speech and for humans to not have 'no speech'.

I'm having a tough time keeping a straight face here. Are you guys serious?

Posted by Sanjay on 2003-05-07 15:06:06