| Revision as of 21:43, 27 March 2001 editJimbo Wales (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Founder14,538 edits Needs work, help me Larry! | Revision as of 13:21, 9 June 2001 edit undoKoyaanisQatsi (talk | contribs)0 editsm Larry, perhaps you'd like to address the question someone left here... :-)Next edit → | ||
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| France is a democracy, and has no King. | France is a ], and has no King. | ||
| The phrase "the present King of France" comes from an example | The phrase "the present King of France" comes from an example | ||
| by ], an apparent paradox raising some interesting questions about the law of the excluded middle, denotation, and so on. | by ], an apparent paradox raising some interesting questions about the law of the excluded middle, denotation, and so on. | ||
| Consider the statement "The present King of France is bald." Is this statement true? Is it false? It is meaningless? | Consider the statement "The present King of France is bald." Is this statement true? Is it false? It is meaningless? | ||
| It surely can't be true, for there is no present King of France. | It surely can't be true, for there is no present King of France. | ||
| But if it is false, then one would suppose that the negation of the statement is true, that is, "The present King of France has hair (is not bald)." But that doesn't seem any more true than the original statement. | But if it is false, then one would suppose that the negation of the statement is true, that is, "The present King of France has hair (is not bald)." But that doesn't seem any more true than the original statement. | ||
| Is it meaningless, then? One might suppose so, because it certainly does fail to denote in a sense, but on the other hand it sure seems to mean something that we can quite clearly understand. | Is it meaningless, then? One might suppose so, because it certainly does fail to denote in a sense, but on the other hand it sure seems to mean something that we can quite clearly understand. | ||
| If only Misplaced Pages had a professional philosopher as editor in chief, we could get a full explanation of these mysteries. | If only Misplaced Pages had a professional philosopher as editor in chief, we could get a full explanation of these mysteries. | ||
Revision as of 13:21, 9 June 2001
France is a democracy, and has no King.
The phrase "the present King of France" comes from an example
by Bertrand Russell, an apparent paradox raising some interesting questions about the law of the excluded middle, denotation, and so on.
Consider the statement "The present King of France is bald." Is this statement true? Is it false? It is meaningless?
It surely can't be true, for there is no present King of France.
But if it is false, then one would suppose that the negation of the statement is true, that is, "The present King of France has hair (is not bald)." But that doesn't seem any more true than the original statement.
Is it meaningless, then? One might suppose so, because it certainly does fail to denote in a sense, but on the other hand it sure seems to mean something that we can quite clearly understand.
If only Misplaced Pages had a professional philosopher as editor in chief, we could get a full explanation of these mysteries.