Paradox

Paradox is a coinage of Greek origin&sbquo from para (exceed&sbquo counter&sbquo off) and doxa (thought&sbquo common notion). Generally&sbquo notions that are considered to be opposite of the "correct" one are called gyakusetsu&sbquo gyakuri or hairi&sbquo which all mean "paradox" in japanese. What is generally thought to be "correct" is not necessarily so depending on the society&sbquo age&sbquo or area. It is&sbquo therefore&sbquo possible that a paradox in one society is not a paradox in another dimension. A famous example is Copernicus' theory in which he claimed that "the Earth revolves around the sun." If one makes an assertion against a belief that is already recognized in the world as correct&sbquo it will not be acknowledged unless there is evidence or proof that backs up that assertion. There are two ways of looking at paradoxes. One is related to experiential facts. The other is related to logical matters. A representative example of experiential paradox is the issue of perpetual motion&sbquo and a famous episode regarding logical paradox is the Cretan philosopher Epimenides' claim&sbquo "I'm a liar." These&sbquo in the philosophical domain&sbquo Iead to the issue of antinomy pointed out by Kant. An antinomy is when a proposition that contradicts an acknowledged fact is itself based on a similarly effective foundation. In other words&sbquo when something is put forth as a sound argument&sbquo its counter-argument or denial is established as a result. These paradoxes are called antinomies. The most important thing in paradox theory is the logical paradox. This is categorized into semantic paradoxes and paradoxes of set-theoretic logic. They have become major clues for debating the authenticity of academic theories and common sense logic in particular. A paradoxical thinking method in design can be a creative process for establishing design because antinomy can always serve as a process for design conception.

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