Gamester, W. orcid.org/0000-0003-4376-4433 (2025) A Paradox of Unacceptability and an “Unacceptable” Equivocation. Analysis. anaf036. ISSN: 0003-2638
Abstract
This paper presents, and solves, a new paradox of unacceptability. Inspired by a recent argument by Bradley Armour-Garb and James Woodbridge, my generalisation of their reasoning, if valid, shows that anyone who takes any sentence whatsoever to be unacceptable is committed to contradiction. I then show how to solve the paradox, by arguing that the reasoning in question equivocates on the word ‘unacceptable’. Those who think my solution works will learn something about how (not) to reason about acceptability, with important consequences for our evaluation of arguments in the philosophy of truth. Those who disagree will have a new paradox to grapple with.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Authors/Creators: |
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| Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This is an author produced version of an article published in Analysis, made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | liar paradox; Curry paradox; unacceptability paradox; truth; alethic nihilism |
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| Institution: | The University of Leeds |
| Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Apr 2025 10:41 |
| Last Modified: | 03 Mar 2026 12:28 |
| Status: | Published online |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
| Identification Number: | 10.1093/analys/anaf036 |
| Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:225271 |
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