Quine's paradox is a paradox concerning truth values, attributed to Willard Van Orman Quine. It is related to the liar paradox as a problem, and it purports to show that a sentence can be paradoxical even if it is not self-referring and does not use demonstratives or indexicals (i.e. it does not explicitly refer to itself). The paradox can be expressed as follows:
- "Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation" yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation.
If the paradox is not clear, consider each part of the above description of the paradox incrementally:
- it = yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation
- its quotation = "yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation"
- it preceded by its quotation = "yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation" yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation.
With these tools, we may now reconsider the description of the paradox. It can be seen to assert the following:
- The statement "'yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation' yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation" is false.
In other words, the sentence implies that it is false, which is paradoxical—for if it is false, what it states is in fact true.
Read more about Quine's Paradox: Motivation, Application
Famous quotes containing the words quine and/or paradox:
“Linguistically, and hence conceptually, the things in sharpest focus are the things that are public enough to be talked of publicly, common and conspicuous enough to be talked of often, and near enough to sense to be quickly identified and learned by name; it is to these that words apply first and foremost.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“A good aphorism is too hard for the teeth of time and is not eaten up by all the centuries, even though it serves as food for every age: hence it is the greatest paradox in literature, the imperishable in the midst of change, the nourishment which—like salt—is always prized, but which never loses its savor as salt does.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)