The notion of paradox

Abstract

Traditionally, a paradox has been defined as an apparently valid argument with apparently true premises and an apparently false conclusion. In this paper I defend that this definition is not appropriate, for it does not allow us to capture some arguments which should be seen as paradoxes. After discussing and rejecting an alternative proposal for a definition of the notion of paradox, I present a characterization which is general enough to include all the relevant cases.

Keywords: paradox, Curry Paradox, Sorites paradox, Liar paradox.