What Is a Paradox? Definition, Examples & How To Use It

Have you ever seen a movie or read a book where something just doesn’t seem right?

Maybe there’s a character who seems to have been transported from another timeline, or maybe there’s an object that is clearly impossible to exist in our universe.

I’m talking about the kind of things people like to say “that’s not possible,” and then they go on to explain why it isn’t possible.

But then, at the end of the day, we’re left wondering: what if it were possible after all?

A paradox is a statement that appears contradictory or absurd but may in fact be true. Although many paradoxes are thought experiments, they can also appear in real life.

There are several types of paradoxes that can occur when dealing with time travel and relativity.

What is a Paradox? A paradox, in layman’s terms, is an allegedly false statement or an argument that runs against one’s prior expectation.

For example, a square root is supposedly two times as big as its predecessor, therefore it must be three times as big.

This is an example of a Paradox. It may not hold up well when applied to the real world.

However, it holds great importance in philosophy.

What Is a Paradox?

A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself. For example, the statement “I am not lying” is a paradox because it means one cannot be telling the truth while saying they are not lying. The word derives from two Greek words meaning “contrary to belief”.

The word paradox is a tricky one, but its meaning can be broken down simply: something that seems to contradict itself.

When we look at the definition of a paradox, we might think about some of our favorite literary characters who embody this idea-such as Hamlet, Oedipus Rex, and The Lion King’s Scar.

   

In real life too, there are many examples of people or events which seem contradictory in nature; such as the sight of an injured animal tending to another wounded animal (which appears to contradict the instinct for survival), or a situation in which someone is simultaneously happy and sad (contradictory emotions).

The word paradox is derived from Greek παράδοξος, meaning “contrary to expectation.” Paradoxes are created when two things that are true seem contradictory. The most famous example of a paradox is the idea that objects can be both solid and liquid.

A paradox is a figure of speech that is self-contradictory or absurd. It seems like it’s all about the meaning behind the word and not on how it sounds.

But, when you say “paradox,” does one part of your brain want to know what the definition is?

First Known Use Of Paradox

The first known use of the word paradox is from Plato in his dialogue, Cratylus. In this dialogue, Plato discusses the origins of words and how they are tied into their meanings.

He explains that a paradox is ‘something said which seems contrary to common sense and yet might be true.’ When you think about it, this definition makes perfect sense.

A paradox is something that contradicts what we would expect or assume.

The word has been around for centuries, but it was not until in 1871 when Lewis Carroll created his novel “Through the Looking Glass” and used the phrase “the looking-glass boy saw an unreflecting boy,” which he called a “paradox.”

In the 5th century BCE, Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea used a paradox to prove that motion is impossible. In his famous paradox known as Achilles and the Tortoise, he described an imaginary race between Achilles and a tortoise with an infinite number of steps.

To win this race, Achilles would have to reach the end before the tortoise had taken its first step. But by then, of course, it will already be too late for him because by then the tortoise will have taken its second step and so on ad infinitum.

   

Logical Paradox

A logical paradox is a contradiction arising from seemingly sound reasoning about rules that lead to contradictory conclusions when applied to different sets of circumstances.

Logical paradoxes typically arise because there is an underlying assumption being made that turns out not to be true or because it’s been assumed that one rule applies without considering other possible exceptions.

Logical Paradoxes happen most often in math problems but also occur frequently in real-world scenarios such as legal disputes or arguments with friends and family members about which movie to watch on Netflix tonight!

A logical paradox is a statement that seems to be true but leads to an impossible conclusion. These statements are often used in philosophy and logic puzzles.

One of the most well-known examples is “This sentence is false” which is both false and true at the same time.

Logical paradoxes are a type of argument that seems to be both true and false at the same time. These types of arguments do not make sense, but they can help us understand how language functions.

   

Oxymoron vs. Paradox

There are many words that we use to describe things that have two seemingly contradictory meanings, such as “sane” meaning both mentally sound and insane.

However, there is one word with a seeming contradiction in its definition that has been around for centuries: the oxymoron.

A paradox is an idea that seems self-contradictory or absurd but may nonetheless be true. For example, the sentence “This sentence cannot be true.”

A paradox can also refer to an argument with multiple possible conclusions each of which contradicts the other (s).

What is the difference between an oxymoron and a paradox? It may seem like they are two terms that mean the same thing, but in reality, they have very different meanings. An oxymoron refers to two words or phrases that don’t logically go together.

For example, “jumbo shrimp” is an oxymoron because jumbo means big and shrimp means small.

A paradox on the other hand has more than one meaning so it’s not always as easy to spot right away.

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two seemingly contradictory words. A paradox, on the other hand, often presents an idea that seems true but cannot be true at the same time.

An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two words are used together, but they have opposite meanings. A paradox is something that appears true and false at the same time.

Oxymorons are often found in phrases such as “jumbo shrimp” or “pretty ugly.” Paradoxes often occur when one person’s opinion contradicts another person’s opinion about an issue; for example, if someone says that he likes coffee he may say “I like coffee because it tastes good.”

The word oxymoron comes from the Greek roots oxys (sharp) and moros (foolish).

Identifying Paradoxes

The most common example of a paradox is one that has been debated for centuries: what came first, the chicken or the egg?

It’s an impossible question because either answer can lead back to an infinite loop and we’ll never know!

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Doing one thing leads to another?” This is a paradox.

It means that you can’t do only one thing without it leading to something else happening. There are many types of paradoxes, but there are two main categories: logical and semantic.

Logical paradoxes happen when someone says something contradictory or absurd and so they can’t be true at the same time.

For example, saying this sentence would be a logical paradox: “I’m wearing clothes.”

The second type of paradox is called a semantic paradox which happens when someone says something that contradicts what we know about reality in some way or just doesn’t make sense to us because our brain wants things to make sense all the time.

What Is A Paradox In Literature?

A paradox is an idea, situation, or sentence that seems contradictory but might be true. For example, “I am writing this sentence” could be considered a paradox because I am talking about myself and I am also not talking about myself.

   

A paradox in literature is essentially a logical contradiction. It can be anything that doesn’t make sense or contradicts an established rule, and it’s often used to create dramatic irony or humor.

A paradox is an idea, statement, or situation that seems self-contradictory or absurd but is actually true. A good example of this would be the classic novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

In this book, there are many examples of what could be considered a paradox. For instance, one of these moments can be found on page 27 where it says “The Mouse said ‘We’re all mad here.’ I’m afraid so,” and then he laughed again.”

This sentence implies that everyone in the world is crazy because they are all trapped within the confines of Alice’s story and yet at the same time we know that Alice has to have written down her thoughts somewhere for us.

It may also refer to the situation of two opposing ideas being true at the same time.

In mathematics, a paradox is called “a self-contradictory statement or proposition”. For example, when you say “I am not here,” but are actually standing right there.

The Grandfather Paradox

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel through time? What if you could go back in time and meet your grandparents before they had children?

Or, what if you accidentally traveled back to the past and killed your grandfather, preventing him from ever meeting your grandmother?

The grandfather paradox is a thought experiment that examines the consequences of time travel. It was first introduced by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick in his novel “Time Out of Joint” (1959).

In this story, an engineer named Joe Chip has found himself in a world where he never existed and has to figure out why.

As many of you may know, time travel is a difficult topic to get your head around. The idea that someone could go back in time and change the past creates some pretty crazy paradoxes.

It’s been discussed for centuries but only now are physicists getting closer to understanding how it might work – if it were possible at all!

What if you could go back in time to before your parents were born and kill their parents so they would never be born? What would happen?

   

The Grandfather Paradox is a paradox that has been pondered for decades. The story goes like this: what if you went back in time and killed your grandfather, before he had children with his wife.

If the person who killed their grandfather was not around when he had children, then how can they exist now? But yet the person exists because they are going back in time and killing themselves!

This paradox is impossible to solve but it does lead us to wonder about free will.