Affluenza As Liar’s Paradox

by John Holbo on December 16, 2013

I suppose you’ve heard that a kid got off by pleading ‘affluenza’. It just occurred to me it’s a Liar’s Paradox (and a travesty, of course.) The kid, through no fault of his own, falsely believed rich people can do stuff like this without suffering serious consequences. It turns out this false belief is true (hey, this is still America.) But obviously having a true belief is not going to keep you out of prison. (There’s no such thing as the sanity defense.) So he has to go to prison. So his belief is false, and he doesn’t have to go to prison. So his belief is true, etc., etc.

It’s kind of like the Paradox of the Court.

You can check out any time you want, but …

by John Holbo on December 16, 2013

The ads Google serves up when you are searching for philosophy terms are often a bit odd.

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The service is iffy, the staff are surly, but 80% off is pretty good! What’s the alternative, when you get right down to it?

Not from a parody account, it would appear:

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