What is Paradox?
On the distinctions of nonsense, doublethink and paradox.
Geoffrey Hamilton
January 18, 1995
The ability of an idea to find a home in the mind of a person is not contingent
on whether it is true or not. The criteria may simply be that if the idea is
useful it will find a home. If this is the case then what is not useful will
not find a home. Perhaps this is what distinguishes nonsense, doublethink and
paradox. Whereas a simple contradiction such as, "it is black," "it is white,"
is observable as a conflict in assertions. To say "this statement is false"
seems to offer a less useful attribute and elicit a more puzzling response.
If it is considered a paradoxical statement why is it so? Would saying black
is white be also a paradox? Is claiming love is hate a paradox? How about up
is down? All are single assertions that are self-reflective and assume that
there are opposites of truth and false, love and hate, or black and white.
They give equal weight to each concept which makes it difficult to state
which side is to be believed. A balance is maintained, a tension that makes
the listener unable to decide what is the assertion. Could they be nonsense,
intended to confuse, or created by a confusion? They could be. Or could they
be an exercise of doublethinking where the listener is expected to suspend
rational faculties for a 'higher' purpose? They could be.
So what is to decide
which of the three they are. If it was a game show posing this question one
might assume those running the show knew the 'absolute' answer, but we must
make these decisions without that luxury. If we liked the assertions, or in
other words, if we found them useful, nonsense and doublethink would be too
disparaging to consider. Paradox is a kinder term because it implies that
the assertion can be 'true' despite the seeming impossibility of reconciling
them in the mind. If one was to find the assertions not useful, or even harmful
considering the difficulty in believing them, doublethink might best describe
them. If one believed the assertions were not to be taken seriously and for
that reason were not useful they could be dismissed as nonsense. Usefulness
as the criteria for determining paradox, doublethink
or nonsense succeeds in making the distinctions desired, but is that all
that usefulness as tool can offer? What if black is white, up is down, love is
hate and truth is false to some degree? A white ball looks black in the absence
of light. Part of a black sky is white, a white hot star, if you travel long
enough in the direction you are looking. Up is down in some ways to Australians. Love is
hate when a stalker is after you. To say something is false is what becomes
true of it. To say something is true is to only offer a representation of the
truth, the truth cannot be a representation, it can only be itself.
What is a paradox but a kind way of labeling the seemingly irreconcilable?
It could be doublethink and nonsense at the same time, but we prefer to make
a distinction if we find that it is useful to do so. However, to say something
is a paradox does not make it so to everyone.
GRH
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