What is a paradox? Examples of paradoxes and their types

The article describes what a paradox is, their examples are given, and their most frequent varieties are considered.

Paradox

With the development of science in it appeared such directions, as, for example, logic and philosophy. They refer to a number of humanitarian, and at first glance it may seem that unlike the disciplines that study the world around us (biology, physics, chemistry), they are not so significant. However, it is not. True, in people most often these disciplines are associated with paradoxes of various kinds, which is partly true. But for the sake of fairness it is worth mentioning that paradoxes as such are also encountered in other fields of science. So what is a paradox and how can it be? In this we will understand.

Definition

The very word "paradox" came from the ancient Greek language. Which is quite logical, because it is the times of the Roman Empire and ancient Greece that are considered the dawn of such sciences as logic and philosophy, which are engaged in the analysis of paradoxes most often. So what is a paradox?

The concept has several similar definitions. For example, in the everyday sense, a paradox is a situation that can exist in reality, but it does not have a logical explanation, or its essence is very difficult to perceive and blurred.

If we consider the meaning of a given word in logic, then this is a formal-logical contradiction, which becomes so because of some special or unusual conditions. Now we know what logical paradoxes are.

The Essence

If we consider this concept in the broad sense, then usually it means judgments, statements and other situations that are strongly at variance with the usual opinion and seem to be objectively or subjectively very illogical. However, the logic gradually appears, if we start to disassemble the subject of discussion in more detail. But at the same time it is important to remember - unlike the aphorism, the paradox is struck by surprise and a clear logical component.

But let's look at the paradoxes in logic in more detail.

Logics

To put it briefly, the logical paradox is a kind of contradiction that takes the form of a concrete, clear and logically correct conclusion, but it is a reasoning that leads to the formation of two or more conclusions that exclude each other. So now we know what a paradox is.

There are also several varieties of logical paradoxes - aporia and antinomy.

The latter is characterized by the presence of two judgments that contradict each other, but both are equally provable.

Aporia is expressed by the presence of an argument or several arguments that strongly contradict common sense, customary opinion of the public or something else obvious. And these arguments are clear and provable.

The science

In sciences that use logic as one of the tools of cognition, situations sometimes arise when researchers come across the contradictions of the theoretical kind or the contradictions that have emerged from the corollary of the theory with the verbal, practical result of one or another experiment. True, this is not always a paradox in its pure form, sometimes this happens as a result of ordinary mistakes, imperfections of current knowledge, methods of obtaining them, or inaccuracies in instruments.

Nevertheless, the existence of a paradox has always been an additional incentive to study in more detail the apparent obvious theory and some of its supposedly obvious evidence. Sometimes this led to the fact that even established and clear theories were completely revised. Now we know the essence of such a thing as the paradox. Examples of some will be discussed below.

Photometric paradox

It belongs to the category of cosmological. Its meaning lies in the question of why it is dark at night, if all the infinite cosmic space is filled with light-emitting stars? If this is so, then at every point of the night sky there will necessarily be some distant star, and it will definitely not be black.

True, this paradox has been resolved over time. To do this, you need to take into account the finite age of the universe and the finiteness of the speed of light, and therefore, part of the universe that is available for viewing, will necessarily be limited to the so-called particle horizon.

In logic and philosophy

Such paradoxes of life met many people, as in everyday reflections, and in various books and textbooks. For example, one of the most popular is the paradox of God. After all, if you assume that he is all-powerful, is he able to create a stone that he himself can not move?

The second one, which also occurs very often, is based on philosophy. Its meaning is that people almost never appreciate what they have, and they only start appreciating after the loss.

As we see, paradoxes are very many-sided phenomena that exist in various fields of science and life.