Paradox

Paradoxes irritate thinking but at the same time function as new beginnings of thinking. They arise when a binary distinction whose values negate each other is referred back to itself with its negative value (e.g. when one says ‘I am lying’ while saying the truth that he or she is lying). If you cannot decide between the two contradicting alternatives, they make your thinking block. Such paradoxical self-referentialities have been dreaded by science and philosophy throughout history and into modernity, and they have made every effort to resolve these paradoxes. Everyday orientation, on the other hand, is not troubled by paradoxes; it deals with them quite naturally. As Niklas Luhmann discovered, one cannot go behind paradoxes that block thinking, which is exactly why one can utilize them as new beginnings of thinking. They allow thinking to operate with both alternatives and thus help orientation to explore new leeways of thinking. Plenty of paradoxes – such as the unjustified justification, the temporary atemporality, the stocks of a stock exchange sold at this stock exchange, or dead persons who are no longer persons – are effective in human orientation (chap. 1.2).

2-3, 8-9, 11, 13, 28, 33, 39-40, 44, 46, 53, 55-56, 59-60, 80, 84, 94-96, 100-101, 134, 145, 153, 157, 165, 169-175, 178-179, 199, 201, 203, 223, 231-233, 261, 275-281

 

Glossary

Reinhard Mueller