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ETpro's avatar

What's wrong with saying that all humans are always wrong?

Asked by ETpro (34605points) April 13th, 2013

If I asserted that, might I be right?

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22 Answers

ninjacolin's avatar

it suggests that you don’t know what you’re talking about the moment you assert it.

marinelife's avatar

No, beacause sometimes (although not in this instance) human beings are right.

rebbel's avatar

And the others are left.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I’m never wrong. Therefore, that makes you wrong. ;}~

ragingloli's avatar

No, you would be wrong.
You could not be right, because that would mean that your statement would be wrong, making you wrong, causing a paradox. Of course, that only applies if you, the claimant, are human.

elbanditoroso's avatar

All absolutes are by definition incorrect. There is no such thing as an absolute.

gasman's avatar

The problem here, @ETpro, is that you are human, so the assertion amounts to Epimenides’ Paradox: “This statement is false.” It has indeterminate truth value, rendering it meaningless.

LuckyGuy's avatar

No. Because all negative statements are always false.

…except on rainy days and Mondays.

janbb's avatar

@ragingloli is always wrong but this time he is absolutely right thus disproving your premise.

Blondesjon's avatar

@LuckyGuy . . . they always get me down

@elbanditoroso . . . did you just create a paradox there . . .

elbanditoroso's avatar

@Blondesjon – I hope so, that was my goal

AstroChuck's avatar

If the statement is made by a human it’s the same self-contradictory preposition as “All Cretans are liars.” spoken by Epimendes or someone saying “This sentence is false.”

Dr_Lawrence's avatar

All generalizations, including this one, are incorrect.

ETpro's avatar

Damn, I can’t fool you guys. At least some of you, some of the time. Way to go @ragingloli. You picked up on the game I was playing. The fact that I made “epistemological nihilism” one of the topics was a clue, maybe.

If you see the logical contradiction in my making such an assertion, doesn’t that falsify the concept of epistemological nihilism? After all, it would always be possible for someone to make such an assertion, and if epistemological nihilism were true, then their statement would be true, thus negating itself.

@elbanditoroso Nice one-upmanship. I got a good chuckle out of that answer.

@AstroChuck That’s the game.

@Dr_Lawrence Yep, in the same spirit. Well, generally so.

AstroChuck's avatar

@ETpro- But then again, how do we really know if you are human?

kitszu's avatar

@elbanditorosoAll absolutes are by definition incorrect. There is no such thing as an absolute.”

The Consummate Paradox

kitszu's avatar

@ninjacolin Possibly, but more likely you don’t know what he’s talking about.

kitszu's avatar

@LuckyGuy So if all negative statements are false; are all positive statements true?

Aesthetic_Mess's avatar

If you’re a human, and you say that all humans are wrong, then that means that you are wrong, and then that would mean that all humans are right. Damn paradoxes.

kitszu's avatar

When we arn’t arguing amonst ourselves who else thinks that the most popular paradoxes are in some way spiritual? I like paradoxes, they are interesting. If you can show me they’re B/S great, otherwise they provide a bored mind with stimulation. And I’m bored, I’ll take what I can get, lol.

kitszu's avatar

If all humans are wrong (and since you are human, you must also be wrong)...If you are right, that doesn’t mean all humans are right. Just that they aren’t all wrong.

ETpro's avatar

@kitszu Congratulations. You got into the Zen of it. Robert McCloskey captured the gist of it.

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

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