Paradox
['pærədɒks] or ['pærədɑks]
Definition
(noun.) (logic) a statement that contradicts itself; '`I always lie' is a paradox because if it is true it must be false'.
Checked by Eugene--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion; an assertion or sentiment seemingly contradictory, or opposed to common sense; that which in appearance or terms is absurd, but yet may be true in fact.
Editor: Omar
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Absurdity (as appears at first sight, yet not so in fact), seeming contradiction.
Checked by Eugene
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Contradiction, enigma, mystery, absurdity, ambiguity
ANT:Precept, proposition, axiom, truism, postulate
Inputed by Julio
Definition
n. that which is contrary to received opinion or that which is apparently absurd but really true.—n. Par′adoxer.—adjs. Paradox′ic -al of the nature of a paradox: inclined to paradoxes said of persons.—adv. Paradox′ically.—ns. Paradox′icalness; Paradox′ides a genus of trilobites; Par′adoxist; Par′adoxy the quality of being paradoxical.—Hydrostatic paradox (see Hydrostatics).
Editor: Manuel
Examples
- If you quote David Hume at them, and say that reason itself is an irrational impulse they think you are indulging in a silly paradox. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- For the ideal must always be a paradox when compared with the ordinary conditions of human life. Plato. The Republic.
- The second paradox leads up to some curious and interesting questions--How far can the mind control the body? Plato. The Republic.
- Pardon the seeming paradox; I mean what I say. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- The silence of midnight, to speak truly, though apparently a paradox, rung in my ears. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- No sooner did Roosevelt take the stump than the paradox loomed up before him. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- A noteworthy paradox often accompanies discussions of morals. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Do you scout the paradox? Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- A paradox there is here, but a paradox of language, and not of fact. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- She possessed that (though such an assertion may appear a paradox) which belongs to few, a capacity of happiness. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Without the slightest paradox one may say that the classicalist is most foreign to the classics. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- To this efficiency, great as the paradox may seem, Peace holds what quiet fields it has, or will have, until most men learn to love peace and hate the arts of war. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- If it is a paradox to ask for a human politics before we understand humanity or politics, it is what Mr. Chesterton describes as one of those paradoxes that sit beside the wells of truth. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The idea of the perfect State is full of paradox when judged of according to the ordinary notions of mankind. Plato. The Republic.
- His doctrine of the social myth has seemed to many commentators one of those silly paradoxes that only a revolutionary syndicalist and Frenchman could have put forward. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- From this dependence of the act of thinking upon a sense of sharing in the consequences of what goes on, flows one of the chief paradoxes of thought. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- My unfortunate paradoxes had entirely dried up that source of comfort. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- This is one of the paradoxes of the democratic movement--that it loves a crowd and fears the individuals who compose it--that the religion of humanity should have had no faith in human beings. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- If it is a paradox to ask for a human politics before we understand humanity or politics, it is what Mr. Chesterton describes as one of those paradoxes that sit beside the wells of truth. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
Typed by Ewing