Paradox 101: and of course how it relates to my love life

Paradox

A paradox is an apparently true statement or group of statements that seems to lead to a contradiction or to a situation that defies intuition. Typically, either the statements in question do not really imply the contradiction, the puzzling result is not really a contradiction, or the premises themselves are not all really true (or, cannot all be true together). The recognition of ambiguities, equivocations, and unstated assumptions underlying known paradoxes has often led to significant advances in science, philosophy and mathematics.

The word paradox is often used interchangeably with contradiction; but where a contradiction by definition cannot be true, many paradoxes do allow of resolution, though many remain unresolved or only contentiously resolved (such as Curry's paradox). Still more casually, the term is sometimes used for situations that are merely surprising (albeit in a distinctly "logical" manner) such as the Birthday Paradox. This is also the usage in economics, where a paradox is an unintuitive outcome of economic theory.

So let’s work through this here, because well, I’m all about sharing myself with you folks – and let’s see how Anita has come to be a paradox.  If I am told, “You’re too good to be true” isn’t that a contradiction in itself?  And if a contradiction is a paradox, then that proves that although I seem too good to be true, what is really happening is that I defy intuition, but credibly at some point, that will be proved wrong.  As well, the above statement being an “assumption” which as stated underlies known paradoxes, once addressed by the party could yet again lead to significant advances!  That truly could be surprising! 

Ahhhh, it’s all so clear now…

Comments

[TW]

Last time I saw a real paradox they were being chased across a lake by a medium-sized black and brown mutt...they weren't quacking happily either!

[Jeff Rodanski]

Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean ? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.