Paradoxes, dead ends of logic

Paradox basically means a situation that can’t be solved. It is not completely true or false. It starts with an acceptable hypothesis and finishes with an unacceptable conclusion. It isn’t just a contradiction, but it locks your mind and opens up your horizon. Here are 4 paradoxes that can confuse you and make you think for a long time.

Grandfather Paradox:

This paradox is impossible to experience for now. But it is still very confusing and who knows? Maybe in the future our society will be able to make time travel, and we can observe the consequences of this paradox.

Basically, a person travels back to his grandfather’s time and kills his grandfather. Now the confusing part: if he does that, he can’t exist because he killed his grandfather. But as a consequence of this, he can’t time travel back and kill his grandfather. So he can be born and kill his grandfather. This continues like this forever and ever. In conclusion, this paradox is confusing because normally reason affects result. Because of the time travel, the result also affects the reason.

Epimenides Paradox

This paradox comes from a philosopher named Epimenides who lived in the 7th century BC. He was from Crete. His statement about Cretan people is exactly: “All Cretan people are liars.” The paradox starts here. He was also Cretan, so this sentence is also a lie. If this sentence is a lie, then all Cretan people aren’t liars. So the sentence is true. If we accept that there is a sharp line between truth and lie, we can’t find any conclusion in this situation.

Barbershop Paradox

This paradox starts with a basic story but things get complicated. In a town, there is a barbershop. This barber only cuts people’s hair who can’t cut their own hair. But as him, he must cut his hair too. Things get weird here. He can’t cut his hair because he must cut only those who can’t cut their own hair. So he can’t cut his hair because of this rule. But if he can’t cut his own hair, he must cut his hair. This paradox shows us that if rules are followed completely, there can be conflicting situations.

Crocodile Paradox

This paradox also starts with a story. In the past, a crocodile kidnapped a woman’s child. She begged the crocodile to free her child. So the crocodile said: “If you can predict whether I am going to eat this child or not, I will give your child back.” So here we have four options.

If the crocodile decided to keep the child, even if the mother guessed correctly, the crocodile would keep the child because this was its decision, but it must give the child back, and this causes breaking the rules. So if she guessed wrong, the crocodile must keep the child.

If it decided to give the child and the mother guessed wrong, it would eat the child. But it must give the child back because it was its first decision. There is only one option in which the mother can get her child. If it decided to give the child and the mother guessed correctly, she can get her child. So in conclusion, this paradox only becomes a conflict if the crocodile’s decision and the mother’s answer are different.

So at conclusion we can say that in real life there isn't sharp lines between two different situations like logic.