140 replies to this topic

[RebeliousWit]

In a village, the barber shaves everyone who does not shave himself/herself, but no one else.
Who shaves the barber?

there are 2 types of people in this village 1. people who cant shave. and 2. people who can.
now, our respected barber "will shave none but the one's who don't shave themselves". this means he can not shave himself and that puts him in the type of people who can't shave themselves, thus he will have to shave himself cuz that is what he promissed.

[Drakonda]

I believe the spirit of this paradox and the time in which it may refer, there would only be one barber per village. Yet there is no rule saying his son couldn't shave him, or his wife for that matter. Just because they do not shave themselves does not mean they cannot shave each other.

[tbar]

The bearded man shaves the barber

[solongandty]

Sounds like a well kept Brazilian village to me!

The only way to solve the paradox is if the barber is not a 'himself' or 'herself'.

In which case the barber could be a machine, a monkey, or better still, an alien capable of making the promise. Or an asexual individual I guess.

Anyway, nobody shaves the barber or the barber shaves itself could either be correct answers.

[Segul]

Perhaps the barber does not shave.

[GGJT]

Barber Paradox (Russell's Paradox) - Back to the Paradoxes

Analogue paradox to the paradox of liar formulated English logician, philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell.
There was a barber in a village, who promised to shave everybody, who does not shave himself (or herself).
Can the barber shave himself and keep the mentioned promise?

Edited (better wording?):
In a village, the barber shaves everyone who does not shave himself/herself, but no one else.
Who shaves the barber?

This one is way too easy. The barber can only shave someone who does not shave themselves but no one else. Whether this means I shaved myself once and need a shave and the barber can't do it or if I've shave myself and the barber has nothing to shave does not matter. I repeat the other people don't matter. Obviously, the barber can't shave himself because he would be shaving someone who shaves themself. So, how does this poor barber ever get shaved? He doesn't shave. He trims, he threads but he doesn't shave. Another answer is that the information says himself OR herself. What if the barber is a himself AND a herself, hermaphrodite? I prefer my first response because the second is not likely or applicable to ordinary circumstances whereas the former is more widely acceptable.

[leeroyjankins]

Why couldn't the barber go to another town to get shaved.

[Cavenglok]

The barber is a woman, or there are more than one barbers. Actually, another possibility is that he/she gets shaved by a non-barber.

[Zoe's Mom]

Spoiler for

The "Barber" is a woman - no need to shave.

[GWIFE]

Spoiler for theory

well another barber can shave the barber, his customers can shave him, and assuming he is married his wife can shave him