In philosophy and logic, the liar paradox or liar's paradox (pseudomenon in Ancient Greek) is the statement "this sentence is false." Trying to assign to this statement a classical binary truth value leads to a contradiction (see paradox).
If "this sentence is false" is true, then the sentence is false, which would in turn mean that it is actually true, but this would mean that it is false, and so on ad infinitum.
Similarly, if "this sentence is false" is false, then the sentence is true, which would in turn mean that it is actually false, but this would mean that it is true, and so on ad infinitum.
Read more about Liar Paradox: History, Explanation of The Paradox and Variants, Logical Structure of The Liar Paradox, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words liar and/or paradox:
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar thats also a hypocrite!
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (18221896)
“When a paradox is widely believed, it is no longer recognized as a paradox.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)