This intriguing book is not only an explanation of paradoxes but also an excellent introduction to philosophical thinking.
R. M. Sainsbury is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin. He also teaches in the Department of Philosophy, King's College, London. He was editor of the journal Mind for a decade from 1990 and his many publications include Reference without Referents (2005, 2007) and Logical Forms, 2nd edition (2000).
Foreword to third edition; Introduction; Suggested reading; 1. Zeno's paradoxes: space, time, and motion; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 Space; 1.3 The Racetrack; 1.4 The Racetrack again; 1.5 Achilles and the Tortoise; 1.6 The Arrow; Suggested reading; 2. Moral paradoxes; 2.1 Crime reduction; 2.2 Mixed blessings; 2.3 Not being sorry; 2.4 Moral dilemmas; Suggested reading; 3. Vagueness: the paradox of the heap; 3.1 Sorites paradoxes: preliminaries; 3.2 Sorites paradoxes: some options; 3.3 Accepting the conclusion: Unger's view; 3.4 Rejecting the premises: the epistemic theory; 3.5 Rejecting the premises: supervaluations; 3.6 Rejecting the reasoning: degrees of truth; 3.7 Vague objects?; Suggested reading; 4. Acting rationally; 4.1 Newcomb's paradox; 4.2 The Prisoner's Dilemma; Suggested reading; 5. Believing rationally; 5.1 Paradoxes of confirmation; 5.1.1 Background; 5.1.2 The paradox of the Ravens; 5.1.3 'Grue'; 5.2 The Unexpected Examination; 5.3 Revising the Unexpected Examination; 5.4 The Knower; Suggested reading; 6. Classes and truth; 6.1 Russell's paradox; 6.2 The Liar: semantic defects; 6.3 Grounding and truth; 6.4 The Strengthened Liar; 6.5 Levels; 6.6 Self-reference; 6.7 Indexicality; 6.8 Indexical circularity; 6.9 Comparison: how similar are Russell's paradox and the Liar?; Suggested reading; 7. Are any contradictions acceptable?; 7.1 Contradictions entail everything; 7.2 A sentence which is both true and false could have no intelligible content; 7.3 Three dualities; 7.4 Negation; 7.5 Falsehood and untruth; Suggested reading; Appendix I. Some more paradoxes; Appendix II. Remarks on some text questions and appended paradoxes; Bibliography; Index.