This Sentence Is False. True Or false?
Seems like a simple question. Uh, no. Not really. Like a dog chasing it’s tail, brushing the bristles of the brush you’re brushing with, seeing your eyes with your own eyes (impossible, unaided), or drawing a circle around all circles on a page (try it!), the first sentence in the title of this post is strange, to say the least. I’ll repeat the sentence in question, for convenience, immediately below this one. --- This sentence is false. --- What makes this so weird is that the sentence in question is an example of “self-reference.” Like a brush brushing itself, eyeballs seeing themselves, or circles circling themselves, the sentence in question “sentences” (i.e. refers to) itself. [“Self reference” is the subject of a wonderful book titled : Godel, Escher, Back: An Eternal Golden Braid , by Douglas Hofstadter. I highly recommend it.] Is the bold-faced sentence three paragraphs above this one true, or false? That’s the question. The answer might surprise you....