What is a paradox?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_(literature)

"...a literary device consisting of the anomalous juxtaposition of incongruous ideas for the sake of striking exposition or unexpected insight."

A fun little song from The Pirates of Pinzance

Two MDs.

AnnieColleen said:

Two MDs.

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*rimshot*

dempsey said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_(literature)

"...a literary device consisting of the anomalous juxtaposition of incongruous ideas for the sake of striking exposition or unexpected insight."

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Say what?

My understanding: two or more concepts or events that contradict one another to a point they possibly can't coexist without major logical breakdown.

The classic time-traveling paradox: I'm my own grandfather.

"a literary device" - something done in literature

"consisting of" - made of

"anamolous" - weird

"juxtaposition" - two things set side by side

"incongruous" - not the same

"striking" - bringing about

"exposition" - showing something

"insight" - seeing the true nature of a thing.

For instance, King Kong. The monkey was a massive monster with a tender heart. He was a paradox. (You wouldn't expect a vicious looking beast to be kind and gentle.) He was created to make us question who is the real monster.

Paradoxes are the moebius strips of logic, where the truth just feeds back on itself to make an untruth that belies the original truth, but the untruth is still true.

Example: In the Pirates song I mentioned: The hero has to work for the Pirate King until his 21st birthday. At the start of the play, he is approaching his 21st year--however since he was born on February 29th, his 21st year is NOT his 21st birthday. Find the lyrics and see what I mean. It messes with your mind, even when Angela Lansbury sings in. LOL!

A statement that appears to contradict itself

"War is peace."
"Freedom is slavery”

Somewhat related to an oxymoron

A better example:

In a Windows computer environment, for instance, it is a paradox that when a user wants to shut down their computer, it is necessary to first click "start".

In literature, the paradox is a literary device consisting of the anomalous juxtaposition of incongruous ideas for the sake of striking exposition or unexpected insight.

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As a tech writer I'm appalled by that definition.

Shadow_Ferret said:

As a tech writer I'm appalled by that definition.

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It's as clear as mud

Shadow_Ferret said:

As a tech writer I'm appalled by that definition.

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But big words make you sound smart!

A paradox is a situation or combination of things that "cannot exist." The Wikipedia article mentions Borges, whose writing appears in "The Mind's I," a book chock full of paradoxes.

Here is a logical paradox:

This sentence is false.

If the sentence is true, then it is truly saying that it is false, which is NOT true. But then if it is describing itself as false, then it IS a TRUE statement. If the sentence is true, then ... (repeat until you go insane, or someone slaps you and says "Snap out of it!").

If that's too self-referential for you, we can have two sentences:

The sentence below is true.
The sentence above is false.

And trying to determine what's true and what's false among those two statements also puts you on a logical merry-go-round.

I recall Isaac Asimov describing a philosophical paradox: What would happen if an irresistible force met an immovable object?

maestrowork said:

Say what?

My understanding: two or more concepts or events that contradict one another to a point they possibly can't coexist without major logical breakdown.

The classic time-traveling paradox: I'm my own grandfather.

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Or that you go back in time and kill your grandfater before he meets your grandmother.

Paradox is the name of a database program from Borland, which has about as much relevance as the "two MD's" comment...

Someone referenced Pirates of Penzance (awesome play!). The paradox they are talking about in it is that Frederick was allowed to leave the pirates on his 21st birthday. But then he learns he was born on leap year, so technically he's only had 5 birthdays, even though he's been alive 21 years. Does that help at all?

Robert Toy said:

A statement that appears to contradict itself

"War is peace."
"Freedom is slavery”

Somewhat related to an oxymoron

A better example:

In a Windows computer environment, for instance, it is a paradox that when a user wants to shut down their computer, it is necessary to first click "start".

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Pushing the windows "Start" button to stop a computer seems to me to be more of an irony than a paradox.

benbradley said:

Pushing the windows "Start" button to stop a computer seems to me to be more of an irony than a paradox.

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I've always simply took it to mean, "this is the place to START if you want to do anything." Not to mean start as in "turn on" or "start your car."

dempsey said:

For instance, King Kong. The monkey was a massive monster with a tender heart. He was a paradox. (You wouldn't expect a vicious looking beast to be kind and gentle.) He was created to make us question who is the real monster.

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Hmmmm... to me, that's just a contradiction. An unexpected, unconventional trait. It's not really a paradox.

maestrowork said:

Hmmmm... to me, that's just a contradiction. An unexpected, unconventional trait. It's not really a paradox.

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Well it follows the definition upstairs, which is what I was going for. It's two things you wouldn't expect to be stuck together, stuck together (by now the juxtaposition of beast and kindness is trite but maybe when King Kong was first created it was really striking). And it was done with the intent of provoking insight-slash-exposition.

There are many, many kinds of paradoxes (as is shown by this thread ). I was just going for the literary definition.

I think maybe that definition might have more to do with narrative contradiction (instead of opposites stuck together such as the King Kong example). For instance:

The path led to somewhere but nowhere.

The world was reduced and expanded to consist of him and her alone.

Here's how I define it: something which, by its very existence, contradicts itself.

Now to go back and read the rest of this thread.

Toothpaste said:

Someone referenced Pirates of Penzance (awesome play!). The paradox they are talking about in it is that Frederick was allowed to leave the pirates on his 21st birthday. But then he learns he was born on leap year, so technically he's only had 5 birthdays, even though he's been alive 21 years. Does that help at all?

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That's not a paradox; it's merely a miscalculation. Someone who's born on 29th February doesn't contradict himself by his own existence.

Another paradox: If God is omnipotent, could God create a rock he couldn't lift?

No, but in his contract he was allowed to leave on his 21st birthday, not 21st year. And technically he'd only had 5 birthdays. Anyway, that's what the entire song "A paradox, a paradox, a most ingenious paradox" is based around.