180040 PS Philosophical Puzzles and Paradoxes (2022S)

Content

In The Ways of Paradox, Quine wrote: ‘More than once in history the discovery of paradox has been the occasion for major reconstruction at the foundation of thought.’ (The Ways of Paradox and other essays, 1976.) In a similar vein, Alfred Tarski wrote: ‘The appearance of an antinomy is for me a symptom of disease. Starting with premises that seem intuitively obvious, using forms of reasoning that seem intuitively certain, an antinomy leads us to nonsense, a contradiction. Whenever this happens, we have to submit our ways of thinking to a thorough revision, to reject some premises in which we believed or to improve some forms of argument which we used. (Truth and Proof, Scientific American, 1969.) The importance of paradoxes to philosophy can hardly be overstated: they invite us to revise previously accepted premises or inference rules and lead us to surprisingly novel ways of thinking.
In this seminar we will examine some of the most famous puzzles and paradoxes that were considered by philosophers since ntiquity, with special focus on metaphysics and ontology. These include: the set theoretical paradoxes; puzzles concerning persistence and change of objects in time (Ship of Theseus; Dion and Theon); the problem of the many; Sorites paradox and the problem of vagueness; the Liar; the problem of contingent propositions about the future; among others. We will consider and weigh the costs of several ways out of them.

Goals

The student will become acquainted with formal reconstructions of the puzzles and paradoxes. The seminar will also introduce the student to the debates and main positions the discussion of these puzzles generated in recent analytic philosophy.

Methods

Reading, interpretation and critical discussion of texts; reconstruction of arguments. Some familiarity and comfort with formal methods is a requisite.