On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 2:28 AM, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > On 9/12/2013 2:33 AM, Telmo Menezes wrote: >> >> Time for some philosophy then :) >> >> Here's a paradox that's making me lose sleep: >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexpected_hanging_paradox >> >> Probably many of you already know about it. >> >> What mostly bothers me is the epistemological crisis that this >> introduces. I cannot find a problem with the reasoning, but it's >> clearly false. So I know that I don't know why this reasoning is >> false. Now, how can I know if there are other types of reasoning that >> I don't even know that I don't know that they are correct? > > > The wiki article gives most resolutions of the antinomy. The logical > contradiction is seen most clearly in case of the man who says to his wife, > "Here's your anniversary present. You'll be completely surprised by what it > is when you open it. It's diamond earrings." So, does the wife reason that > she'll be surprised, yet he's said it's diamond earrings; so it can't be > diamond earrings because then she wouldn't be surprised. Then she opens the > box and it's diamond earrings AND she's surprised.
I don't think this is equivalent because in your scenario the statement is necessarily a lie. Either the wife will not be surprised or the present is not diamond earrings. In the unexpected hanging scenario, the judge is not lying. It is clearly possible for the prisoner to get a knock at his door Monday or maybe Wednesday and be surprised. The judge did not lie, but the reasoning seems to indicate that the surprise is impossible. I think there's something deeper going on here. Telmo. > It just shows that if you reason from contradictory statements you can > arrive at any conclusion. > > Brent > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
