A paradox is a self-contradictory state of affairs, a set of circumstances that should not be possible because it either breaks logical norms, is physically impossible, or creates a disruption in what we understand by the laws of cause and effect.
Some examples here may be useful:
- ‘This statement is false’ This quote creates a paradox in which if the statement is true it must be false and if it is false it must be true
- ‘A man goes back in time and impregnates his grandmother thus becoming his father’s father and his own grandfather’ This creates a paradox because at the point the man impregnates his grandmother he has not yet been born and so the existence of people prior to his birth is dependent on someone who does not yet exist
- ‘Someone travels back in time to assassinate Stalin before he comes to power’ the paradox here is that should this be successful then the events that would stimulate the decision to assassinate would no longer take place and so there would be no reason for the assassination to take place, which in turn would mean that those events would take place thus creating the motive for assassination, which in turn removes the motivation and so on ad infinitum
What is compelling about these paradoxes is that while they create contradictory outcomes, they are not impossible in the strictest sense.… Read more