by Shugo Thu Jun 26 2008, 02:01
ok here you go heres the answer
If we suggest that what the man says is true, then we end in
contradiction: if the man’s claim that he is lying is true, then he is
lying, in which case what he says is false.
If we suggest that what the man says is false, then we are no better
off: if the man’s claim that he is lying is false, then he is not
lying, in which case what he says is true.
Both answers give rise to logical contradictions; it cannot be the
case either that what the man says is true or that what the man says is
false.
The Liar Paradox is sometimes referred to as “Epimenides’ Paradox”,
after the sixth-century B.C. Cretan who asserted that all Cretans are
liars. The apostle Paul makes reference to Epimenides in Titus 1:12,
writing, “It was one of them, their very own prophet who said, ‘Cretans
are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.’”
Epimenides’ statement alone does not give rise to a paradox. What he
says can’t be true, for if Cretans are always liars, and he is a
Cretan, then he must be lying, in which case his statement is false.
His statement could be false however; it could be that Epimenides is
dishonest but that not all Cretans are liars.
Paul, though, excludes this dissolution of the paradox, proceeding
to say in the following verse, “This testimony is true.” This leaves
Paul asserting that Epimenides truly said that he (and all other
Cretans) are liars, which takes us back to Eubulides’ paradox above;
Paul cannot be right.