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Full Idea
Berry's Paradox: by the least number principle 'the least number denoted by no description of fewer than 79 letters' exists, but we just referred to it using a description of 77 letters.
Gist of Idea
Berry's Paradox: we succeed in referring to a number, with a term which says we can't do that
Source
William D. Hart (The Evolution of Logic [2010], 3)
Book Ref
Hart,W.D.: 'The Evolution of Logic' [CUP 2010], p.63
A Reaction
I struggle with this. If I refer to 'an object to which no human being could possibly refer', have I just referred to something? Graham Priest likes this sort of idea.
18125 | Berry's Paradox considers the meaning of 'The least number not named by this name' [Bostock] |
13484 | Berry's Paradox: we succeed in referring to a number, with a term which says we can't do that [Hart,WD] |
9638 | Berry's Paradox finds a contradiction in the naming of huge numbers [Brown,JR] |
13370 | 'x is a natural number definable in less than 19 words' leads to contradiction [Priest,G] |