Re: Lost in Space
Sam, on host 12.16.110.5
Tuesday, October 13, 1998, at 15:24:27
Re: Lost in Space posted by Dave on Tuesday, October 13, 1998, at 15:04:35:
> Trust me, there is nothing "apparent" about it. The worst thing you can do when trying to understand Relativity is to fall into the "it only *seems* that way" trap. > > Again I point you to the two web links I posted earlier in the course of these threads.
I was *this close* to posting a message to this thread myself. It is very confusingly worded. I think people are agreeing with you. Both *are* true. But that doesn't make sense, so it *seems* like a contradiction. Therefore, it's paradox -- an apparent contradiction. If both *aren't* true, and the pitfall of relativity ("it only seems that way") were true, then it wouldn't be a paradox, because it wouldn't be an "apparent contradiction" it would be a "*real* contradiction."
But...now that I look up the word in my dictionary, I note that the definition of "paradox" is "a statement that appears to contradict itself but that may be true." So I guess a paradox is a contradiction that's apparent regardless of whether or not it's true.
So what that means is...it's a paradox anyway. In fact, an "apparent paradox" is itself a paradox. And I am so tied up in degrees of apparentness and truth a contradictions upon contradictions that I'm going to have to mull this over in bed tonight so that the answer can come to me just as I'm waking up tomorrow morning.
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