Greek Questions which make no sense 1: the Epimenides paradox
In the past 24 hours I have been struck by two variants of Hellenic questions which make no sense.
The first is the latest form of the ancient Epimenides paradox - a Facebook post about facebook posts being rubbish ...
In context he was referring to those of his fellow-Cretans who disputed the immortality of Zeus and he probably did not intend to inspire the logical paradox for which he is remembered: as Thomas Fowler put it,
"Epimenides the Cretan says, 'that all the Cretans are liars,' but Epimenides is himself a Cretan; therefore he is himself a liar. But if he be a liar, what he says is untrue, and consequently the Cretans are veracious; but Epimenides is a Cretan, and therefore what he says is true; saying the Cretans are liars, Epimenides is himself a liar, and what he says is untrue. Thus we may go on alternately proving that Epimenides and the Cretans are truthful and untruthful."
1) the statement could be true, and this was one occasion when Epimenides, who told lies on other occasions, was being truthful for once, or
The first is the latest form of the ancient Epimenides paradox - a Facebook post about facebook posts being rubbish ...
More than 2,600 years ago the Hellenic philosopher Epimenides of Knossos referred to Cretans as "always liars" thus giving rise to the paradox which is still sometimes referred to with his name (also known as a paradox of self reference.)
In context he was referring to those of his fellow-Cretans who disputed the immortality of Zeus and he probably did not intend to inspire the logical paradox for which he is remembered: as Thomas Fowler put it,
"Epimenides the Cretan says, 'that all the Cretans are liars,' but Epimenides is himself a Cretan; therefore he is himself a liar. But if he be a liar, what he says is untrue, and consequently the Cretans are veracious; but Epimenides is a Cretan, and therefore what he says is true; saying the Cretans are liars, Epimenides is himself a liar, and what he says is untrue. Thus we may go on alternately proving that Epimenides and the Cretans are truthful and untruthful."
In the form in which is was originally put by Fowler there are at least two easy solutions.
It's only a logical paradox both if "liar" is defined as someone who always lies and never tells the truth, AND if any statement about the truthfulness of Cretans applies equally to all Cretans. If you define a liar as someone who sometimes tells lies, or admit the possibility that the truthfulness of Cretans might vary, then it is possible that
1) the statement could be true, and this was one occasion when Epimenides, who told lies on other occasions, was being truthful for once, or
2) it could be false to say that ALL Cretans are liars but true to say that some are, and Epimenides was one of them, and his statement that Cretans are "always liars" was one occasion when he lied.
Of course, you can put the paradox in a form which does not permit of a rational solution: for example, the third Doctor Who, portrayed by Jon Pertwee, once gave this example of a paradox:
"The next thing I say will be true. But the last thing I said was a lie."
Fascinated to see if anyone can give an answer to this one but I think it cannot be resolved and I understand those who consider themselves experts agree with me.
The NewsThump Facebook post at
which inspired this thought has a loophole which avoids a paradox: it only says that 95% of FB posts are drivel.
However it served the purpose of moving me on to another more modern Greek question to which there is no sensible response - see next post ...
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