May 10, 2003

We Should Vacation in Crete

The Ten-Year-Old: Dad?

Me: Yes?

The Ten-Year-Old: I know a question, the answer to which is either "yes" or "no," that you cannot answer correctly.

Me: And the question is?

The Ten-Year-Old: Are you going to answer this question with a "no"?

Me: [Pause] Aha.

The Ten-Year-Old: I didn't think of it myself...

Posted by DeLong at May 10, 2003 04:48 PM | TrackBack

Comments

That's cool. I'd never heard the paradox formulated this way before. I wonder, though, if the hidded flaw is that it's not the case that "the answer to which is either 'yes' or 'no.'"

Posted by: Matthew Yglesias on May 10, 2003 06:54 PM

I hope you instill healthy political values in The Ten-Year-Old; such power should not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands!

Posted by: PHK on May 10, 2003 07:20 PM

May I suggest Russell's "History of Western Philosophy" as an eleventh birthday present?

-dlj.

Posted by: David Lloyd-Jones on May 11, 2003 05:51 AM

Well, you could always channel Reynolds and give it a good ole, 'Indeed.'

Posted by: George on May 11, 2003 09:09 PM

Aubergine

Posted by: Eccles on May 12, 2003 12:35 AM

Screw Russell :)

Start him on Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, then move him through Augustine to Aquinas.

Posted by: Ian Whitchurch on May 12, 2003 04:50 PM

All blog comments are lies.

Posted by: Eiji Hirai on May 12, 2003 07:06 PM

"Screw Russell :)

Start him on Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, then move him through Augustine to Aquinas."

I don't think Brad wants to turn his 10-year old into a little John Stuart Mill. Just work on the mathematics, and leave the philosophy for the twenties.

Posted by: andres on May 13, 2003 02:31 PM
Post a comment