-- Posted by OnOnE353 at 8:58 pm on Dec. 3, 2008 A topic just reminded me about this. My boss asked me the other day: "Everything I say is a lie. Am I lying or telling the truth?" Anyway, being the stuck up bitch that she is, she was reluctant to believe that there are possible answers and thought it was impossible to solve. I said: Many people's hypotheses are "it's a paradox" and believe he is neither lying nor telling the truth. That is completely false. It's actually pretty simple; he actually lies SOME of the time and this was a lie. Anyone got any other theories? -- Posted by maceyface at 9:09 pm on Dec. 3, 2008 its a paradox because it is not possible for it to be the truth. -- Posted by OnOnE353 at 10:00 pm on Dec. 3, 2008 Quote: from maceyface at 5:09 am on Dec. 4, 2008 its a paradox because it is not possible for it to be the truth. Like I said: What if he lies some of the time and this is a lie? -- Posted by maceyface at 10:16 pm on Dec. 3, 2008 Quote: from OnOne353 at 10:00 pm on Dec. 3, 2008 Quote: from maceyface at 5:09 am on Dec. 4, 2008 its a paradox because it is not possible for it to be the truth. Like I said: What if he lies some of the time and this is a lie? um, please read what i wrote. the statement CAN be a lie. that is, it is possible for this statement to be UNTRUE, but it is a paradox because it is impossible for this statement to be 100% true. -- Posted by Event Horizon at 2:11 pm on Dec. 4, 2008 I don't think that it is a paradox. she says, "Everything I say is a lie", then, we should take that as a lie. So then NOT everything she says is a lie. However, obviously since the first statement was a lie, she must lie some of the time. So all you are left with is that she lies sometimes and does not lie at others. -- Posted by Bearsy at 11:40 am on Dec. 5, 2008 This is a famous thing A man says he's lying. Is this true or false? The answer is neither. Not every statement is true or false. -- Posted by medjai at 2:04 pm on Dec. 5, 2008 This is a lie.                                                                       -- Posted by GoloSLB at 1:58 pm on Dec. 6, 2008 That is a lie.  She is your boss right? She said she would heir you, and she did.  That one example proves that statement false if nothing else. -- Posted by xoxo1234 at 11:45 am on Dec. 12, 2008 She answered her own question. She gave you two possible answers: that she is either lying or speaking truthfully. If she never told the truth she wouldn't even give it to you as a possible option, because she just told you that everything she says is a lie. So she's lying. -- Posted by telomere13 at 4:31 pm on Dec. 13, 2008 Quote: from OnOne353 at 11:58 pm on Dec. 3, 2008 A topic just reminded me about this. My boss asked me the other day: "Everything I say is a lie. Am I lying or telling the truth?" She's lying, because the logical negation of "everything I say is a lie" is "at least one thing I say is not a lie," not "everything I say is not a lie."  This is analogous to the following situation: "all people are male" is false, because some people are female.  However the fact that "all people are male" does not mean that all people are female. So in your bosse's case, it is indeed not a paradox, because the fact that "everything I say is a lie" is, in fact, a lie, does not mean that everything she says is the truth, so it is perfectly logical that that particular statement is a lie. That said, if she had said "this particular statement is a lie," then it would indeed be a parodox. So I think I agree with you, but I thought I'd explain it anyway just to make it as clear as possible.