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5 famous philosophical paradoxes and their significance for each of us
Forming A Life / / December 19, 2019
Visitors to "Wikipedia" once said that if click on the first link in each article, then sooner or later you will still rested into one of the articles on philosophy. The explanation for this phenomenon is simple: almost all the achievements of modern culture, science and technology are based on the philosophical theories and paradoxes invented back in ancient times.
In this article we have compiled some interesting examples and stories that philosophers have used to illustrate his ideas. Many of them are already more than two thousand years, but they still do not lose their relevance.
Buridan's ass
Buridan's ass - a philosophical paradox, named for Jean Buridan in spite of the fact that he was known more of the works of Aristotle.
Donkey standing between two completely identical haystacks. Unable to select any one of them, he loses time evaluating each option. As a result, delay a donkey becoming hungrier, and the price of all solutions is increasing. And not being able to choose any one of the equivalent options, the donkey eventually dies of starvation.
This example unreported, of course, up to the point of absurdity, but it perfectly illustrates that the freedom of choice sometimes turns into a complete lack of any freedom. If you try as much as possible to weigh rationally related variations, it is possible to lose both. In this case, any step is better than an endless search for the optimal solution.
Allegory of the Cave
The myth of the cave - the famous allegory used by Plato in the dialogue "The State" to illustrate his doctrine of ideas. It is considered a cornerstone of Platonism and objective idealism in general.
Imagine a tribe that is sentenced to live in a deep cave. On the feet and hands of its members shackles that hinder move. In this cave I was born several generations, the only source of knowledge which are the weak glow of light and muffled sounds reaching their senses from the surface.
Now imagine that these people know about life outside?
And then one of them took off his shackles and made it to the entrance of the cave. He saw the sun, trees, amazing animals, birds soaring in the sky. He then returned to their own people and told them about what they saw. Do they believe him? Or consider a more accurate picture of the gloomy underworld, who all his life seen with your own eyes?
Do not drop the idea only because of the fact that they seemed absurd, and you do not fit the usual picture of the world. Maybe your whole experience - this is just a vague reflections on the cave wall.
The paradox of omnipotence
This paradox is to try to understand whether there is, is able to perform any action to do anything that would limit its ability to perform actions.
Can an omnipotent being create a stone which it itself can not lift?
You may find that this philosophical task is purely speculative indulgence, completely detached from life and practice. However, it is not. The paradox of omnipotence is of great importance to religion, politics and public life.
While this paradox remains unresolved. We can only assume that the absolute omnipotence does not exist. So, we still always have a chance to win.
The paradox of the chicken and the egg
This paradox is probably all heard. First discussion of the tasks appear in the writings of classical philosophers of ancient Greece.
Which came first: the chicken or the egg?
At first glance, the task seems insurmountable, as the appearance of a single element is not possible without the existence of the other. However, the complexity of this paradox lies in the vague wording. Solution depends on what you mean by "egg". If the egg - the egg, chicken demolished, the first one was, of course, chicken, hatched not out of the egg. If the egg - an egg from which hatches a chicken, the first was a hen's egg, chicken is not demolished.
Every time before you put the impossible task, to get a grasp in her condition. Sometimes it is here and there is a way to answer.
Achilles and the Tortoise
This paradox is attributed to Zeno of Elea - Ancient Greek philosopher, famous representative of the Eleatic school. With it, it is attempted to show contradictory concepts of motion, space and sets.
Suppose Achilles runs 10 times faster than a turtle, and is located behind it at a distance of 1000 steps. Until Achilles will run through the distance, the turtle in the same direction propolzot 100 steps. When Achilles will run 100 steps propolzot tortoise another 10 steps and so on. The process will continue indefinitely, Achilles will never overtake the tortoise.
Despite the obvious absurdity of this statement, to refute it is not so easy. Finding solutions conducted serious debate, built a variety of physical and mathematical models, write articles and dissertations are protected.
For us, the conclusion of the puzzles are very simple. Even if all the scientific luminaries stubbornly maintain that you never overtake the tortoise, do not give up. Just try to do it.
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