The Logical Paradoxes - Ep. 2.3: A strike at the heart of mathematics

Third episode (Season 2) of a series of talks with the logician and philosopher Graham Priest (CUNY) about contradiction. The lier paradox certainly has the appearance of a party trick. In case there was any doubt that this is false, paradoxes structurally similar to the lier were discovered at the very heart of mathematics at the beginning of the XX Century. In this episode Prof. Priest explains how this happened.

Very few philosophers dared to question the Principle of Non Contradiction, which says that contradictions cannot be true. The principle has gone so unquestioned that hardly any philosopher since Aristotle tried to defend it. Graham Priest belongs to the small number of philosophers who - in the good company of Heraclitus and Hegel - have dared to question it. He thinks that some contradictions are true. Here is why.

Discussant: Emiliano Boccardi