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Full Idea
In a certain village there is a barber, who shaves all and only those men in the village who do not shave themselves. So does the barber shave himself? The barber shaves himself if and only if he does not shave himself.
Gist of Idea
A barber shaves only those who do not shave themselves. So does he shave himself?
Source
Willard Quine (The Ways of Paradox [1961], p.02)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'Ways of Paradox and other essays' [Harvard 1976], p.2
A Reaction
[Russell himself quoted this version of his paradox, from an unnamed source] Quine treats his as trivial because it only concerns barbers, but the full Russell paradox is a major 'antinomy', because it concerns sets.
| 6407 | The class of classes which lack self-membership leads to a contradiction [Russell, by Grayling] |
| 13365 | Russell's Paradox is a stripped-down version of Cantor's Paradox [Priest,G on Russell] |
| 10711 | Russell's paradox means we cannot assume that every property is collectivizing [Potter on Russell] |
| 21689 | A barber shaves only those who do not shave themselves. So does he shave himself? [Quine] |
| 21694 | Membership conditions which involve membership and non-membership are paradoxical [Quine] |
| 7701 | Can a Barber shave all and only those persons who do not shave themselves? [Jacquette] |
| 10673 | Plural language can discuss without inconsistency things that are not members of themselves [Hossack] |