Course information

A paradox is a plausible argument for an absurd conclusion. Better still: a paradox is an apparently plausible argument, with apparently plausible premises, which leads to an apparently absurd conclusion using apparently valid reasoning. In this module, we are going to look at several kinds of paradoxes (and the connections between them), including paradoxes of vagueness and indeterminacy, semantic paradoxes, and metaphysical paradoxes. This module is a mixture of meta-philosophy (the philosophy of the nature of philosophical problems and the methods we can or should use to address these problems) plus first-order philosophy (what is the best solution to, e.g., the Sorites Paradox?).