Author Topic: Paradoxes and Oxymorons  (Read 10952 times)

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Offline Joe

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Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« on: November 07, 2006, 10:29:27 am »
I always find these interesting. Paradoxes can give any intelligent person a headache, and oxymorons can make you chuckle for a minute or so.

Everyone's unique.
Jumbo shrimp.
Microsoft works.

Nine out of ten agree that one out of ten will disagree with the other nine.
I went back in time and killed my great grandfather.
I'd personally do as Joe suggests

You might be right about that, Joe.


Offline Sidoh

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2006, 12:19:14 pm »
Since unique isn't a very descriptive word, the first isn't much of an oxymoron.  "Jumbo" is a relative term, so the second isn't either.  The third is just stupid.

Offline iago

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2006, 12:51:13 pm »
Unique implies that people are different.  But the fact that everybody shares the property of being unique can be oxymoronical. 

Microsoft Works is my favorite. :)

Offline chuck

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2006, 01:00:42 pm »
Chucks Blog
JavaOp2 Plugins

Quote
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Offline Sidoh

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2006, 01:58:40 pm »
Unique implies that people are different.  But the fact that everybody shares the property of being unique can be oxymoronical. 

Microsoft Works is my favorite. :)

Like I said, "unique" is a very non-descriptive word.  If you were to compile a list of properties of each person, I have little doubt that there would be no two lists that were identical, assuming the number of properties was large enough.  I don't think that's a very good oxymoron.  It's too much of an oversight.

Offline iago

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2006, 02:22:16 pm »
Unique implies that people are different.  But the fact that everybody shares the property of being unique can be oxymoronical. 

Microsoft Works is my favorite. :)

Like I said, "unique" is a very non-descriptive word.  If you were to compile a list of properties of each person, I have little doubt that there would be no two lists that were identical, assuming the number of properties was large enough.  I don't think that's a very good oxymoron.  It's too much of an oversight.

You're thinking too hard for a joke :P

Offline Sidoh

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2006, 03:07:25 pm »
Oxymorons aren't supposed to be jokes...

Offline iago

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2006, 04:18:46 pm »
I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be some humour element in them. 

Offline Sidoh

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2006, 04:34:51 pm »
I don't think an oxymoron is supposed to imply anything other than two contradictory phrases.

Offline rabbit

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2006, 04:39:06 pm »
I am lying.
This sentence is false.

Offline Chavo

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2006, 05:08:45 pm »
"This sentence is false" doesn't work unless you include a statement such that only true and false are possibilities.

Such as:
The sentence below is true.
The sentence above is false.

Offline Blaze

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2006, 07:05:00 pm »
I don't think an oxymoron is supposed to imply anything other than two contradictory phrases.

Stop thinking then.  :)
And like a fool I believed myself, and thought I was somebody else...

Offline rabbit

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2006, 07:14:35 pm »
"This sentence is false" doesn't work unless you include a statement such that only true and false are possibilities.

Such as:
The sentence below is true.
The sentence above is false.
It works just fine:
"This sentence is false."
If it's false, then it is true, which means it's not false, and thusly it's false, so it's true, etc...

Offline Chavo

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #13 on: November 07, 2006, 08:07:47 pm »
You're making the assumption that completely true and completely false are the only possibilities but your statement makes no restriction such that the assumption is necessary.  My example restricts all possibilities to completely true or completely false.

"This sentence is false"  can be partially true and partially false and still work ;)

Offline Ender

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Re: Paradoxes and Oxymorons
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2006, 08:33:02 pm »
Yeah, the unique example sucks. Uniqueness is not unique. By your definition of unique no human is unique because we all share human traits. Unique doesn't mean your completely different.

The "Microsoft Works" one was funny the first time I've heard it but it's so overused now...

The rest are too bad to merit discussion.