Barber paradox

This article is about a paradox of self-reference. For an unrelated paradox in the theory of logical conditionals with a similar name, introduced by Lewis Carroll, see Barbershop paradox.
"Who shaves the barber" redirects here. For the Fargo episode, see Who Shaves the Barber?

The barber paradox is a puzzle derived from Russell's paradox. It was used by Bertrand Russell as an illustration of the paradox, though he attributes it to an unnamed person who suggested it to him.[1] The puzzle shows that an apparently plausible scenario is logically impossible. Specifically, it describes a barber who is defined such that he both shaves himself and does not shave himself, which implies that no such barber exists.[2][3]

  1. ^ Russell, Bertrand (1919). "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", reprinted in The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, 1914-19, Vol 8, p. 228
  2. ^ "The Barber's Paradox". UMSL. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  3. ^ "Barber paradox". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2023-10-21.