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Barber paradox
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{{short description|Colloquial version of Russell's paradox}} {{about|a paradox of self-reference|an unrelated paradox in the theory of [[logical conditional]]s with a similar name, introduced by [[Lewis Carroll]]|Barbershop paradox}} {{Redirect|Who shaves the barber|the ''[[Fargo (TV series)|Fargo]]'' episode|Who Shaves the Barber?}} {{more citations needed|date=March 2015}} 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.<ref name="atomism">Russell, Bertrand (1919). "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism", reprinted in ''The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, 1914-19'', Vol 8, p. 228</ref> 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.<ref name="siegelj">{{Cite web |title=The Barber's Paradox |url=https://www.umsl.edu/~siegelj/SetTheoryandTopology/TheBarber.html |access-date=2023-10-21 |website=[[UMSL]]}}</ref><ref name="oxfordref">{{Cite web |title=Barber paradox |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095446216 |access-date=2023-10-21 |website=[[Oxford Reference]] |language=en }}</ref>
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