Now that it’s a day or two past April Fool’s Day, the truth can be told. There was indeed either something or nothing going on, and you, Czarcasm, walked right into it.
This was best explained by Raymond Smullyan in the opening paragraphs of his book What Is The Name Of This Book?
Raymond Smullyan in What Is The Name Of This Book?:
Was I Fooled?
My introduction to logic was at the age of six. It happened this way: On April 1, 1925, I was sick in bed with grippe, or flu, or something. In the morning my brother Emile (ten years my senior) came into my bedroom and said: “Well, Raymond, today is April Fool’s Day, and I will fool you as you have never been fooled before!” I waited all day long for him to fool me, but he didn’t. Late that night, my mother asked me, “Why don’t you go to sleep?” I replied, “I’m waiting for Emile to fool me.” My mother turned to Emile and said, “Emile, will you please fool the child!” Emile then turned to me, and the following dialogue ensued:
Emile / So, you expected me to fool you, didn’t you?Raymond / Yes.Emile / But I didn’t, did I?Raymond / No.Emile / But you expected me to, didn’t you?Raymond / Yes.Emile / So I fooled you, didn’t I!
Well, I recall lying in bed long after the lights were turned out wondering whether or not I had really been fooled. On the one hand, if I wasn’t fooled, then I did not get what I expected, hence I was fooled. (This was Emile’ s argument.) But with equal reason it can be said that if I was fooled, then I did get what I expected, so then, in what sense was I fooled. So, was I fooled or wasn’t I?
Senegoid:
Now that it’s a day or two past April Fool’s Day, the truth can be told. There was indeed either something or nothing going on, and you, Czarcasm, walked right into it.
This was best explained by Raymond Smullyan in the opening paragraphs of his book What Is The Name Of This Book?
I absolutely love this book! I Had a copy growing up, which disappeared somewhere between adolescence and adulthood. I finally ordered myself a replacement off of Amazon a few weeks ago…
Suburban_Plankton:
I absolutely love this book! I Had a copy growing up, which disappeared somewhere between adolescence and adulthood. I finally ordered myself a replacement off of Amazon a few weeks ago…
…so why didn’t you tell me last month that I could download the whole thing for free?!?
You haven’t been paying attention.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16998444&postcount=55 (Jan. 8, 2014).
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17185622&postcount=27 (March 11, 2014).