3 ms·
Strong counter-intuitiveness is a widely accepted use of the word “paradox”, even by logicians. (See, e.g., W. V. Quine’s The Ways of Paradox.)
by celoyd 16y ago
Strong counter-intuitiveness is a widely accepted use of the word “paradox”, even by logicians. (See, e.g., W. V. Quine’s The Ways of Paradox.)
- michael_dorfman 16y agoHmm. Well, Quine and I will just have to agree to disagree, then. But in this case, I would hardly call the counter-intuitiveness "strong."
- Confusion 16y agoNow I wonder whether you are brushing off Quine out of the conviction that it is a matter of opinion anyway and that his actual argument therefore doesn't matter? In which case I would like to point out the advantages of challenging your own opinions. Sometimes opinions turn out to have been, well, let's say: much harder to defend than originally thought and even though you can defend them as 'mere opinion', you just don't want to anymore. Decent philosophical treatises have at least changed my 'opinions' about some things.
- michael_dorfman 16y agoOn the contrary: I think Quine is being sloppy with language, as many philosophers reserve "paradox" to stand for something far stronger than mere counterintuitiveness. At the moment, I'm in the middle of writing a dissertation on Nagarjuna-- now, there was a master of paradox-- and I agree completely with you that decent philosophical can change a reader's opinions profoundly. I just don't put Quine into that categorization. Naturally, YMMV.