Yablo's paradox
E73906
Yablo's paradox is a self-referential logical paradox involving an infinite sequence of sentences, each saying that all later sentences in the sequence are false, which challenges traditional notions of semantic paradox and self-reference.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Yablo's paradox canonical | 3 |
| Stephen Yablo's 1993 paper "Paradox without Self-Reference" | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T568446 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Yablo's paradox Context triple: [liar paradox, hasVariant, Yablo's paradox]
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A.
Berry paradox
The Berry paradox is a self-referential logical paradox arising from phrases like “the smallest positive integer not definable in under eleven words,” which appears to define exactly such a number while claiming it cannot be defined.
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B.
Barber paradox
The Barber paradox is a self-referential logical puzzle about a barber who shaves all and only those who do not shave themselves, illustrating a contradiction similar to Russell’s paradox.
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C.
Curry paradox
Curry paradox is a self-referential logical paradox that arises in certain formal systems without using negation, showing how naive reasoning about implication and self-reference can lead to triviality.
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D.
Epimenides paradox
The Epimenides paradox is a classic self-referential logical puzzle arising from a Cretan philosopher’s claim that all Cretans are liars, illustrating the problem of statements that refer to their own truth or falsehood.
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E.
Russell’s paradox
Russell’s paradox is a foundational logical contradiction in naive set theory that reveals problems with sets that contain themselves, leading to major developments in modern logic and the axiomatization of set theory.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Yablo's paradox Target entity description: Yablo's paradox is a self-referential logical paradox involving an infinite sequence of sentences, each saying that all later sentences in the sequence are false, which challenges traditional notions of semantic paradox and self-reference.
-
A.
Berry paradox
The Berry paradox is a self-referential logical paradox arising from phrases like “the smallest positive integer not definable in under eleven words,” which appears to define exactly such a number while claiming it cannot be defined.
-
B.
Barber paradox
The Barber paradox is a self-referential logical puzzle about a barber who shaves all and only those who do not shave themselves, illustrating a contradiction similar to Russell’s paradox.
-
C.
Curry paradox
Curry paradox is a self-referential logical paradox that arises in certain formal systems without using negation, showing how naive reasoning about implication and self-reference can lead to triviality.
-
D.
Epimenides paradox
The Epimenides paradox is a classic self-referential logical puzzle arising from a Cretan philosopher’s claim that all Cretans are liars, illustrating the problem of statements that refer to their own truth or falsehood.
-
E.
Russell’s paradox
Russell’s paradox is a foundational logical contradiction in naive set theory that reveals problems with sets that contain themselves, leading to major developments in modern logic and the axiomatization of set theory.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
logical paradox
ⓘ
philosophical paradox ⓘ self-referential paradox ⓘ semantic paradox ⓘ |
| analyzedBy |
logicians
ⓘ
philosophers of language ⓘ philosophers of logic ⓘ |
| appearsIn | The Philosophical Review ⓘ |
| challenges |
classical theories of truth
ⓘ
standard treatments of semantic paradox ⓘ traditional accounts of self-reference ⓘ |
| coreStructure |
each sentence says that all later sentences in the sequence are false
ⓘ
no sentence refers to itself or to earlier sentences ⓘ |
| describedAs |
paradox involving only reference to later sentences
ⓘ
paradox without direct self-reference ⓘ |
| field |
logic
ⓘ
philosophical logic ⓘ philosophy of language ⓘ philosophy of logic ⓘ |
| firstSystematicPresentation |
Yablo's paradox
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Stephen Yablo's 1993 paper "Paradox without Self-Reference"
|
| hasAuthor | Stephen Yablo ⓘ |
| hasConsequence |
influences discussions of circularity and dependence
ⓘ
motivates non-classical logics ⓘ motivates revisionary theories of truth ⓘ raises problems for Tarskian hierarchies of languages ⓘ |
| hasVariant |
modal versions
ⓘ
set-theoretic versions ⓘ temporal versions ⓘ |
| involves |
infinite sequence of sentences
ⓘ
non-well-founded reference pattern ⓘ self-reference ⓘ semantic notions of truth and falsity ⓘ truth predicates ⓘ |
| logicalStatus | generates contradiction under classical assumptions about truth ⓘ |
| motivates |
fixed-point theories of truth
ⓘ
hierarchical and non-hierarchical approaches to truth ⓘ paracomplete logics ⓘ paraconsistent logics ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Stephen Yablo ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1993 ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
liar paradox
ⓘ
surface form:
Liar paradox
non-classical logics ⓘ self-reference in logic ⓘ semantic paradoxes ⓘ truth-theoretic paradoxes ⓘ |
| typicalFormulation | for each natural number n, sentence Sn says that all sentences Sk with k>n are false ⓘ |
| usedInArgumentFor |
existence of non-well-founded reference
ⓘ
limitations of classical truth-conditional semantics ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Yablo's paradox Description of subject: Yablo's paradox is a self-referential logical paradox involving an infinite sequence of sentences, each saying that all later sentences in the sequence are false, which challenges traditional notions of semantic paradox and self-reference.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Stephen Yablo's 1993 paper "Paradox without Self-Reference"