Proposition's Being Truth-Bearers and Impossibility of Pointing out to an Inexistent: Solution of the Liar Paradox

Document Type : Scientific-research

Authors

1 PhD student in Islamic Philosophy and Theology, University of Tehran

2 Associate Professor in Islamic Philosophy and Theology, University of Tehran

Abstract

Two main approaches to solve one group of liar paradox's versions _that is, the group in which demonstratives are used_ are denying self-reference sentences and denying that the liar sentence is a statement, which is the primary and genuine bearer of truth. The major problem with the first approach is that they have not explained why we do not have self-referential sentences and usually try to omit them with conventions. The main problem with the second approach is that they have not explained why the liar sentence would not constitute a statement. We, in this inquiry, after casting a new twosome division for all versions of the liar paradox, will present a solution, or probably a way of dissolution, for a cluster of the versions, namely the cluster in which demonstratives are used explicitly or implicitly_ a solution that, in a way, has the two approaches in it. The solution is this: since firstly propositions are primary and essential bearers of truth and secondly pointing out to an inexistent that is neither existent nor in relation with an existent is impossible, so no proposition in correspondence with the sentence "this sentence is false" is formed in our minds, because before this sentence is formed completely and before ascribing the predicate to the subject, no sentence was formed so that we could refer to it and ascribe a predicate to it. So we would not have any propositions in correspondence with the sentence so that it would be descripted to the truth/falsity primarily and by-itself and the sentence would be true/false by virtue of it, because a portion of the sentence_ namely the subject_ has not sense, namely before predication we do not have “this sentence”.

Keywords

References

ابن سینا (1387)، الشفاء: الإلهیات، تحقیق حسن حسن­زادۀ آملی، الطبعة الثالثة، قم، بوستان کتاب.
ابهری، اثیرالدین (1396)، خلاصة الأفکار و نقاوة الأسرار، تصحیح مهدی عظیمی و هاشم قربانی، تهران، مؤسسۀ پژوهشی حکمت و فلسفۀ ایران.
ـــــــــــــ (بی­تا)، کشف الحقائق، نسخۀ خطی، ش2310 میکروفیلم، دانشگاه تهران.
اسدی، مهدی (1393)، «راه حلی به پارادوکس معدوم مطلق»، منطق­پژوهی، سال پنجم، ش2، پاییز و زمستان، ص1-30.
البغدادی، عبدالقاهر (1928)، اصول الدین، استانبول، مطبعة الدولة.
تفتازاتی، مسعود بن عمر (1989)، شرح المقاصد، تحقیق عبدالرحمن عمیره، قم، منشورات الشریف الرضی.
حلی، حسن بن یوسف (1337)، ایضاح المقاصد من حکمة عین القواعد، تصحیح علینقی منزوی، تهران، دانشگاه تهران.
شریفی، احمدحسین (1387)، معیار ثبوتی صدق قضایا، قم، موسسۀ آموزشی و پژوهشی امام خمینی.
شیرازی، قطب‌الدین (1369)، درةالتاج، تصحیح محمد مشکات، چاپ سوم، تهران، حکمت.
طوسی، نصیرالدین (1353)، تعدیل المعیار فی نقد تنزیل الافکار در ضمن منطق و مباحث الفاظ،به اهتمام مهدی محقق و توشی هیکو ایزوتسو، تهران، دانشگاه تهران.
عارفی، عباس (1388)، مطابقت صور ذهنی با خارج، تهران، پژوهشگاه فرهنگ و اندیشۀ اسلامی.
فان اس، یوزف (1365-1366)، «ساخت منطقی علم کلام»، ترجمۀ احمد آرام، تحقیقات اسلامی، ش2 و 3، زمستان و بهار، ص33-78.
فرامرز قراملکی، احد (1386)، دوازده رساله در پارادوکس دروغگو، تهران، موسسۀ پژوهشی حکمت و فلسفه.
فیّاضی، غلامرضا (بی­تا)، «صوت درس­گفتار اسفار»، www.eshia.ir.
ملاصدرا (1383)، الحکمة المتعالیة فی الأسفار الأربعة، تصحیح و تحقیق غلامرضا اعوانی، تهران، بنیاد حکمت اسلامی صدرا.
هروی، محمدزاهد (2004)، شرح الرسالة المعمولة فی التصور و التصدیق و تعلیقاته، تحقیق مهدی شریعتی، بیروت، دار الکتب العلمیة.
 
Audi, Robert. (1999), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, New York, Cambridge University Press.
Buridan, John. (1996), Sophisms on Meaning and Truth, Translated and with an introduction by Theodore Kermit Scott, New York, APPLETON-CENTURY-CROFTS Division of Meredith Publishing Company.
Clark, Michael. (2007), Paradoxes from A to Z, London and New York, Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group.
David, Martin. (1994), Correspondence & Disquotation, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Haack, Susan. (1978), Philosophy of Logics, Great Britain, Cambridge University Press.
Horwich, Paul. (1998), Truth, New York, Clarendon Press.
Kirkham, Richard L. (2001), Theories of Truth: A Critical Introduction, United States of America, MIT Press.
Miller, Lorry B. (1989), “A Brief History of the Liar Paradox” in “Of Scholars, Savants, and their Texts: Studies in Philosophy and Religious Thought”, New York, Peter Lang, pp. 173-182.
Pleitz, Martin. (2018), Logic, Language, and the Liar Paradox, Germany, Münster.
Quine, W. V. (1982), Theories and Things, United States of America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
ـــــــــــــــــــــ (1996), Pursuit of Truth, United States of America, Harvard University Press.
Rescher, Nicholas. (2001), “Paradoxes: Their Roots, Range, and Resolution”, United States of America, Open Court Publishing Company.
Sainsbury, R. M. (2009), Paradoxes, New York, Cambridge University Press.
Soames, Scott. (1999), Understanding Truth, Oxford New York, Oxford University Press.
Beall, Jc, Glanzberg, Michael and Ripley, David. (2017), "Liar Paradox" in "The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy", Fall:    https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/liar-paradox/.
Van Heijenoort, John. (1967), ‘Logical Paradoxes’ in "The Encyclopedia of Philosophy", ed. Paul Edwards, vol. 5, pp. 44-51.
Yablo, Stephen. (1993), Paradox without Self-Reference, Oxford University Press, Analysis, vol. 53, No. 4 (Oct.), pp. 251-252.
Philosophy
Volume 18, Issue 1 - Serial Number 34
September 2020
Pages 189-205

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics