I’m reading Metamagical Themas, a collection of articles written by Douglas Hofstadter for Scientific american in the early 80s when I was just a toddler.
The first section of the book Snags and Snarls talks includes a column about Self-Referential sentences. Self referential sentences don’t have to be a paradox but sometimes they are such as:
“I am lying.” or “This sentence is false.”
See – Epimenides Paradox
Anyways, section 2 continues by discussing Viral Sentences and Self-Replicating Structures, which are pretty interesting.
Section 2 Is my favorite so far entitled Sense and Society. Here Hofstadter explains many situations where much of the human race accept words, sayings, ideas, fads, styles, and tastes without reflection or skepticism. He goes on to recommend the magazine Skeptical Inquirer as a preventative measure for naivete and a prescription for common sense. In fact, the chapter is titled “World Views in Collision: The Skeptical Inquirer versus the National Enquirer”.
I highly recommend the book to the logical or methodical reader.
By the way, isn’t Wikipedia wonderful. There are so many things that I want people to be able to learn more about from my blog with out having to explain them myself. So I just link to Wikipedia.
Metamagical Themas, Douglas Hofstadter, and Epimenides Paradox were all brought to you today by Wikipedia.