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Self negating statements

created by ymelup

(idea) by ymelup (2.1 y) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Tue Sep 26 2000 at 11:47:47

A statement that negates itself in some way. These are an annoying problem logically, and indicate that something is wrong with our logic system. Some of them are obvious, some of them are subtle. It also turns out that the core of the proofs of both Godel's Theorem and the Halting Problem is self negating statements.

Here's a list of all the self negating statements that I know of.


(idea) by Geez (1 y) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Tue Sep 26 2000 at 12:13:44

The above description hits on (at least) two different logical topics:

The first is paradoxes:
"This statement is false" creates a paradox (in systems that consider such a statement meaningful) - if the statement is true, what it says is true, and it is therefore false. If, on the other hand, it is false, than the statement must be true. Any way you look at this sentence, it won't work.

The second topic addressed is self evident falsehood: "Everything is relative" creates no paradox. Even if we assume that something that is relative is not true, and that saying "this statement is relative" creates a paradox, than all we know is that the statement cannot be true. Its negation - "It is not true that everything is relative" only means that there is some statement or thing that is not relative. It could be this statement or any other, and neither option causes trouble.


printable version
chaos

Halting problem Russell's paradox Dinara Is Not A Recursive Acronym oxymoron
Everything is relative The page cannot be displayed This sentence is false Centrelink
Epimenides' paradox Epimenides self-extracting executable Bible Contradictions
cousin Godel's theorem
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