Which of the following statements is NOT a paradox?

Question

Curious to see how well people do. I'll announce the answer later

(1) The student teaches his instructor who teaches his student

(2) I always lie

(3) This statement is false

(4) To be powerful, one must have an army - to have an army, one must be powerful

(5) Is "no" the answer to this question?

ElijahCynicism · Accepted Answer

ughhhhhh I f***ing love paradoxes but I can't do them at all.

Right. I'll answer here first then look at the answers.

For number one you could say, well, he could be teaching him engineering but he also teaches him, idk, stage magic, but that seems like a cop-out. So, what, reduce it to algebra? X teaches Y who teaches X. I don't really see a necessary contradiction?

I always lie is the old two-doors thing, same as this statement is false. The Absurd Paradox stuff. Like, 'It is raining, but I do not believe that it is raining.' Number 4 is Catch 22, the famous paradox - to leave you have to apply for the medical exam and be declared insane, but being competent enough to apply for the medical exam means they don't consider you insane, so you can never leave.

And, 5 is obvious.

So, surely it's 1, no? That's the weakest. You could say, of 4, he is powerful BECAUSE he has an army and he has an army BECAUSE he is powerful, in the present-tense, it is just one thing, which cannot be isolated into two - the army and the power are indispensibly bound up. If we make it future tense it simply confuses the student but is it necessarily contradictory? X must Y - Y must X. That's very very simple logic, even.

So I say 4.

DutchAtheist · Accepted Answer

2, you can lie about always lying.

toulouse · Accepted Answer

5. paradox is a statement  not a question. a statement with seemingly inconsistent logic though sometimes found to be true. #5 can not be true or untrue because there's no content. in addition, its not a statement giving a fact.  its not providing truth. its searching for it.

justbanANNAz · Accepted Answer

i have a feeling its 1=]

the others, whether it be evident or not, are paradoxical to some degree.

i think its one because we don't necessarily know that the student and the instructor are specialised in the same area lol.

confugirl · Accepted Answer

1 isn't a paradox. The student can teach or correct his instructor on one thing, the instructor can teach the student about another thing. Whether you call them instructor or student is only a matter of who gets paid to teach.

Blobb · Answer

1 - Being a student is not contradictory with being a student. You can both teach and learn simultaneously so it's not a paradox.

2 - I akways lie -> I think that's a paradox. The logic loop f***ed my brain xD

3 - This statement is false -> not paradoxical a statement can be incorrect.

4 - To be powerful, one must have an army - to have an army, one must be powerful -> That's a loop, and a paradox which also happens to be incorrect.

5 - Is "no" the answer to this question? -> whichever way you put it, if you say Yes, it's "no" if you say no, it is in effect "no". So that's a something. Paradox maybe.

Anonymous · Answer

As the relations between the students and instructors in No one are not clarified, this might be not paradox. You also can put it that way round that students and teachers influence each other anyway.

No 4 is also only a paradoxon by its wording not by its content as the latter is wrong. You become powerful an army can help. But more important are the financial means available to the one grasping for power. Money can be attained through many ways. You don't have to be powerful already to earn some, you just need big luck and have a knack for it.

One who has money can use it to strengthen his influence also by bribery. He can furthermore pay others to help him which would then be the army mentioned.

cheesesteak7 · Answer

I'd say 1, because it's possible, though by definition of the terms, it shouldn't be possible. If "student" and "instructor" weren't vague or ambiguous, and had definitive formal meanings that followed rules of logic, I think it'd be a paradox. But if "student" and "instructor" are used informally, then it's not a paradox, as has been exampled by other posters.

5 seems like a possibility because can a question technically be a paradox?

Between one and 5 for me. Voted 1.

Electric_Dreams · Answer

1 I think - it's very possible and conceivable that two people can get together and teach each other at the same time. What's more, not only do students learn from their teachers, but teachers do learn from their students - about the present day's youth if nothing else.

katylaura · Answer

1 is not a paradox, it's perfectly possible for the teacher to learn things from their student as well as vice versa. 2, 3 and 5 are "traditional" paradoxes. statement 4 is more catch-22 than a paradox, but in that sense is still a little more paradoxical than 1.

shadowscapes · Answer

1. more of a connection than a paradise.

2. false. denying the negative is not the same as affirming the positive. aka, you lie some times - not all the time.

3. yes, your statement is both false and true at the same time. so yes its false, but its true also

4. not a paradox. but just a fact of life. you need money to make money, for example.

Koldhearted · Answer

Ima go with one or four.

4 can be true. You don't need extreme power like a world leader, but you need to have some sort of power in your field or area

2/3/5 are pretty "classic" ones.

1 doesn't sound like a paradox at all.

RedSmartie · Answer

Statement one is the least paradoxical.  The student and the instructor could be teaching each other different things.

ketfoen · Answer

I have no idea, but I'm just gonna make a lucky guess and hope it's the right paradox. heheh Taking a guess is a paradox all on it's own too.  2

The_B_Man · Answer

2,3, and 5 are definitely paradoxes 1 seems fine and 4 seems more like tautology than a paradox... but I can only choose one...

qwer1234 · Answer

Depending on the answers posted by others here, I'll chose next time wisely which advice I take from whom, because some people aren't very smart.

anthony8x · Answer

It's a trick they are all paradoxes. Just different forms of paradoxes.

OpenClose · Answer

1. A teacher and student always learn from each other. I experience this all the time as a tutor.

martyfellow · Answer

I'm not up on formal logic, but only #1 has two outcomes that don't exclude each other!

Anonymous · Answer

I don't think one is a paradox. The teacher-student relationship can be a symbiotic relationship, with both parties learning new things.

front2back · Answer

I already know it can't be 2, 3 or 5. But I'll go with 1. 4 seems more paradoxical than 1.

Anonymous · Answer

Maybe non of them are technically I think I heard once that many people don't know the real definition of a paradox.

Solitude2 · Answer

All of them are paradoxes.

Cromartie · Answer

When will you reveal the answer, exactly?

BKshadow-ki · Answer

Neither of the items are paradoxes.

Which of the following statements is NOT a paradox?

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