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Barber Paradox (Russell's Paradox)


rookie1ja
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I guess this is a basic Paradox in itself and the answer is evident understanding the fact that its a paradox.

"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?"

Yes, the barber can absolutely keep his promise. His promise is to shave everybody who doesn't shave himself, not who shave themselves, which includes himself - considering of course he is a shaven person! So he can shave himself as a barber but not as someone who shaves himself! :-)

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i think that the barber can keep his promise!!! he promises o shave everybody who doesnt shave himself/herself meaning all customers! if we consider the barber as a "customer" then when he wants to shave he goes to the "barber" and get shaved(though he doesnt pay anything!) and the promise is kept!

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he shaves everyone who doesnt shave themselves.. but the people who shave themselves including himself.. just shave themselves and thats that

This is very easy people pay attention

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The correc6t answere is that the Barber is a woman. therefore she never needs to shave herself, and she can shave each of the men in the village.

yeah but maybe girls need to shave their legs and stuff think about it that way

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Well, this appears to be a simple English rules question. Because of the location of the commas in this sentence, we could re-word the sentence to read: "There was a barber in a village who does not shave himself (or herself), who promised to shave everybody." Therefore the answer is yes, of course, the barber, who does not shave himself can shave himself and keep the promise to shave everybody.

However, given the nature of the question, I believe the question being asked is " There was a barber in a village, who promised to shave everybody who does not shave himself or herself." In which case the paradox lies in the concept that he promises to shave those people who do not shave themselves. He can, of course, keep this promise. There is nothing in the barber's promise that says he can only shave those people who do not shave themselves. He can shave people who shave themselves too, even himself.

"But no one else"

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he shaves everyone who doesnt shave themselves.. but the people who shave themselves including himself.. just shave themselves and thats that

This is very easy people pay attention

But he can not shave anyone that shaves themselves

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

Who shaves the barber?

The people who dont shave himself/herself can shave other people. The village could be a village of barbers that only shave other people. Does that make sense?

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