The Raven paradox, also known as Hempel's paradox or Hempel's ravens is a paradox arising from the question of what constitutes evidence for a statement. Observing objects that are neither black nor ravens may formally increase the likelihood that all ravens are black—even though intuitively these observations are unrelated.
This problem was proposed by the logician Carl Gustav Hempel in the 1940s to illustrate a contradiction between inductive logic and intuition. A related issue is the problem of induction and the gap between inductive and deductive reasoning.
Read more about Raven Paradox: The Paradox, Proposed Resolutions
Famous quotes containing the words raven and/or paradox:
“The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“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)