The article describes what a paradox is, gives examples of them and discusses their most common varieties.
Paradox
With the development of science, such areas as, for example, logic and philosophy appeared in it. They belong to a number of humanities, and at first glance it may seem that, unlike the disciplines that study the world around us (biology, physics, chemistry), they are not so significant. However, it is not. True, people most often associate these disciplines with paradoxes of various kinds, which is partly true. But in fairness, it is worth mentioning that paradoxes as such are found in other areas of science. So what is a paradox and what can it be? We'll figure it out.
Definition
The very word "paradox" comes from the ancient Greek language. Which is quite logical, because it is the times of the Roman Empire and Ancient Greece that are considered the dawn of such sciences as logic and philosophy, which deal with the analysis of paradoxes most often. So what is the paradox?
The concept has several similar definitions. For example, in everyday understanding, a paradox is a situation that can exist in reality, but at the same time have no logical explanation at all, or the essenceits very hard to read and blurry.
If we consider the meaning of this word in logic, then this is a formal-logical contradiction, which becomes such due to some special or unusual conditions. Now we know what logical paradoxes are.
Essence
If we consider this concept in a broad sense, then usually it is understood as judgments, statements and other situations that strongly diverge from the usual opinion and seem objectively or subjectively very illogical. True, the logic gradually appears if you start to analyze the subject of discussion in more detail. But at the same time, it is important to remember that, unlike an aphorism, a paradox strikes precisely with surprise and a clear logical component.
But let's take a closer look at paradoxes in logic.
Logic
In short, a logical paradox is a kind of contradiction that has the form of a specific, clear and logically correct conclusion, but at the same time it is a reasoning that leads to the formation of two or more conclusions that exclude each other. So now we know what a paradox is.
There are also several varieties of logical paradoxes - aporia and antinomy.
The latter is characterized by the presence of two judgments that contradict each other, but both of them are equally provable.
Aporia is expressed by the presence of an argument or several arguments that strongly contradict common sense, the usual opinion of the public, or something elseobvious. And these arguments are clear and provable.
Science
In the sciences that use logic as one of the tools of cognition, situations sometimes occur when researchers come across contradictions of a theoretical kind or contradictions that have arisen from a consequence of a theory with a verbal, practical result of a particular experience. True, this is not always a paradox in its purest form, sometimes this happens as a result of ordinary errors, the imperfection of current knowledge, methods for obtaining it, or inaccuracy of tools.
Nevertheless, the presence of a paradox has always been an additional incentive to understand in more detail the seemingly obvious theory and some of its supposedly obvious evidence. Sometimes this led to the fact that even well-established and clear theories were subjected to a complete revision. Now we know the essence of such a thing as a paradox. We will consider some examples below.
Photometric paradox
It belongs to the category of cosmological. Its meaning lies in the question of why it is dark at night, if the entire infinite outer space is filled with stars emitting light? If so, then at every point in the night sky there will definitely be some kind of distant star, and it will definitely not be black.
True, this paradox was eventually resolved. To do this, you need to take into account the finite age of the Universe and the finiteness of the speed of light, which means that the part of the Universe that is available for viewing will necessarily be limited by the so-calledparticle horizon.
In logic and philosophy
Such paradoxes of life have been encountered by many people, both in everyday reflections and in various books and textbooks. For example, one of the most popular is the paradox of God. After all, if we assume that he is omnipotent, then is he able to create a stone that he himself cannot move?
The second one, also very common, is based on philosophy. Its meaning is that people almost never appreciate what they have, and begin to appreciate only after the loss.
As you can see, paradoxes are very multifaceted phenomena that exist in various fields of science and life.
