역설 의미론의 기초

Abstract

Semantics of paradox is a theory on the meaning of paradoxical expressions like “That is a nonsense!”, “It is absurd!”. As a working definition, ‘paradox’ is defined as a specific type of situation which causes people to respond to it with such utterances like above. The semantics of paradox will not look like a semantics of words, phrases, sentences, or compound sentences. It has to do with the aspects of situations which are of a higher level category than that of things, states, events, or simple conjunction of events. To construct a theory of paradox, it is essential to find specific patterns in the situations which bring about the socalled paradoxical responses. These patterns which constitute the situations are the core that has paradoxical efficacy. The patterns I present are: Infinity, Totality, Self-reflexivity, Duplexity (manifested through Confusion through Representation or Taking-as), and the singular domain ― the First Person-Singular-Present. I discuss these patterns independently or in association with the philosophers’ treatments of their paradoxes. The ‘vagueness’ found in the talk on Sorites Paradox is repudiated. The philosophers felt it paradox not because it was vague but because they have seen the Law of Mathematical Induction violated. And the self-reflexivity found in the Liar’s Paradox is not the genuine cause of the paradox, but rather it is the confusion between the object language and the meta language. Why do paradoxes occur? Is it because the world goes like that? Is it because we see, think and act in a specific way? I think the both are to be taken into consideration, and always at the same time. Why do we respond in such a way to the paradoxes? Well, first because of the feeling of total helplessness, or uncontrollability we feel when the world is vast and have infinity which our finite reason cannot measure or cope with. And when we see things broken or violated, the things that we keep preserving and want to preserve, and that preserve us: the laws or the principles, the dearest things, the norms, the conscious or unconscious practices, or habits. When they are broken or violated it is hard for us to tolerate the situation. So the paradoxes teach us what they are that we preserve and keep. They inform us how we conduct our behaviors, how we choose, and how we react. They raise us our understanding, knowledge, emotion or perception to higher levels when we have understood what paradoxes are and how paradoxes work upon us.