Reappraisal of the Hangmen Paradox

摘要

The hangman paradox, alternatively known as the surprise inspection paradox or the unexpected examination paradox, has attracted considerable philosophical attention since it first turned up at the end of World War II. A recent article (Margalit & Bar-Hillel, 1983), contains a 40-item bibliography. Several papers have been published since. Margalit and Bar-Hillel do not only survey the literature, they also present their own resolution of the paradox, which incorporates the valuable insights of their predecessors. In the paper, the authors want to show that there is more to the paradox than what they call their 'wonderfully simple' solution.