Written and edited | Skylark

Source| Cuckoo Listening (iBookgood)

"Why drink?"

"For Forget."

"Forget what?"

"Forget my shame."

" "Ashamed of drinking."

If you have watched "The Little Prince", you will definitely remember the above sentence. A dialogue like this seems to fall into an infinite loop step by step, which is actually a paradox.

The so-called paradox is that the same proposition or reasoning implies two opposite conclusions, and both conclusions can be justified.

Life is full of paradoxes. We always think that there will be an answer to any question, but sometimes problems will appear in the form of paradoxes.

Now, these paradoxes seem to have become thinking cubes in the form of language, which can not only stimulate children's sense of achievement in participating in intellectual challenges, but also allow children to develop the habit of thinking and exercise their thinking wisdom.

Today, we have prepared 10 classic paradoxes for you. Think about them with your children and burn your brains together!

1. Time Travel Paradox

Consider the situation where a time traveler buys a copy of "Romeo and Juliet" and then travels back to past and handed over to young Shakespeare.

Shakespeare then copied it and published it. With the development of history, these things have been passed down to the era of time travelers, and then they were bought by travelers and then sent back to the past.

So here comes the question:

Who wrote "Romeo and Juliet"?

Brainstorming time:

If we must give an answer to this question, then we can set the world of time travel to be two parallel worlds. In the first world, Shakespeare wrote This book was passed down to the traveler's era, and then the traveler traveled through time and space to the Shakespeare's era in the second parallel world, and then passed it on to the travelers in the second world...

If you don't consider it Parallel world, then this question can only be a paradox without an answer, just like a chicken laying an egg or an egg laying a chicken with no end.

You can do this with your children:

This time travel also appeared in "Interstellar" directed by Nolan. Watching it with your children can help them understand more thoroughly.

If your child is curious about time travel, this is a good time to stimulate your child’s interest in astronomy. You can take your child to watch documentaries about the universe, black holes, time and other topics, which we have introduced before.

2. The Unique Paradox

Everyone must have heard of this song "We Are Different", which has gone from Douyin to the streets. One of the lyrics goes like this: "We are different, everyone has different circumstances."

So here comes the question:

In fact, this lyric contains a paradox. Do you know what it is?

Brainstorming time:

It is said that we are different, but if each of us is unique, then it means that no one is unique.

You can do this with your children:

Look with your children to see if there are any paradoxes in other lyrics?

In addition, you can also look at the most common spoken language in our lives. Is it a paradox? How to say a sentence in the most rigorous way? Practice it with your children.

3. Banker’s Paradox

If you are a banker and have a loan available, if you lend money to someone with a poor credit record, what risk will you take? It's very big, they may not be able to pay you back, or even make you bankrupt.

So here comes the question:

Can this money be loaned out?

Brainstorming time:

This actually creates a contradictory situation. People who need money the most have high credit risks, so they cannot get loans; and those who need the money the least People with the best credit records can get loans but do not need loans.

That’s why we say: Investment is risky, and financial management needs to be cautious!

Whether you can lend it out or not depends on your financial management concepts.

You can do this with your children:

Use this question to talk to your children about correct financial management concepts and help them improve their financial intelligence.

In addition, you can plan with your children to imagine what qualities and conditions are needed to become a banker, and how hard can you save a large amount of money?

4. Sancho's Paradox

There is a story in "Don Quixote". Don Quixote's servant Sancho ran to a small island and became this King of the island.

He promulgated a strange law: everyone who arrives on the island must answer a question, "What are you doing here?" If the answer is correct, he is allowed to play on the island. If he answered incorrectly, he would be hanged. One day a bold man came and was asked this question as usual.

So here comes the question:

How should he answer to survive?

Brainstorming time:

This person’s The answer was: "I came here to be hanged."

If he were allowed to play on the island, it would not be consistent with what he said "I was going to be hanged." That is to say , he said "to be hanged" which was wrong. Since he was wrong, he should be hanged. But what if he was hanged? At this time, what he said "will be hanged" is consistent with the facts, and therefore he is right. Since he answered correctly, he should not be hanged.

At the end of the story, the king of the island found that his law could not be enforced because no matter how he enforced it, the law would be destroyed. After much thought, he finally asked the guards to let him go and declared the law invalid.

You can do this with your children:

In fact, this is also a very common paradox, so what is the key point in creating such a paradox? Find a pattern with your child.

You can also ask your children to think about any paradoxes in the books or picture books they have read, and summarize them!

5. The Barber Paradox

The barber in a small town made a bold statement: "I shave the faces of all the people in the city who don't shave themselves."

So Here comes the question:

Does the barber shave himself?

Brainstorming time:

This seems to be a paradox, but you can also try to lead your children to think outside the box.

If the hairdresser is a woman...does that make it true? Or is the barber actually a child laborer? Or if you think a little more broadly, the barber might also be a shemale?

You can take your children to do this:

In fact, this paradox is the famous Russell's paradox. It proves that the set theory of the 19th century is flawed and has almost changed Research directions in mathematics in the 20th century.

You can take your children to learn more about the experiences behind this paradox, and what makes them understand the stories of famous mathematicians.

6. The Paradox of Thrift

When people fear that the Great Depression is coming, they begin to reduce their consumption to increase their storage, hoping to combat the risk.

So the question is:

Will this work?

Brainstorming time:

It was precisely because everyone did this that it eventually caused the Great Depression.

This is a phenomenon in economics that makes people think deeply, and in our lives, this paradox also applies in many places.

You can do this with your children:

Talk to your children about why prices rise and fall from time to time, and educate them about the meaning of macroeconomic control.

Teach your children what is reasonable consumption, cultivate their correct concept of consumption, and sort out their financial awareness.

7. Customer Paradox

The boss told the clerk: The customer is God, no matter what the customer says, they are right.

So here comes the question:

Can this principle be established?

Brainstorming time:

Definitely not, if the customer says: What I said is wrong. Then we have fallen into a paradox.

In addition to this situation, if multiple customers are quarreling, each with their own opinions and opposing each other, then who is right?

You can take your children to do this:

Play simulation games with your children. The children play the role of store clerks, and the parents play the role of customers to make things difficult for them. Let the children think about how to solve these difficult problems. guest.

You can also add more payment links in the game to allow children to exercise their computing skills in the game.

8. The Graduate Paradox

It’s time to find a job after graduating from college, but everyone often faces this very famous paradox: “You need work experience to get a job. work, but you need a job to gain work experience”. This paradox is a problem faced by thousands of graduates every year.

So here comes the question:

How do people who are already working find jobs?

Brainstorming time:

Judging from the results, this paradox has actually been cracked, and everyone cracks it in different ways.

No matter what, having a background in a prestigious school will be an advantage. Because of this, children must study hard and develop various future-oriented abilities. If they are "young and don't work hard", they may really You will be trapped by such a paradox.

You can do this with your children:

Talk to your children about their views on future work and let them build a dream.

Let the child think about how to realize his dream and what does he need to learn? What does it take? Implement a small plan.

9. Bald Paradox

If a person has 10,000 hairs on his head, he is not bald, and removing one hair does not make him bald.

So here comes the question:

After 9999 reductions, is a person with only one hair left bald?

Brainstorming time:

In fact, this is an untenable reasoning, because the premise "a person with 10,000 hairs on his head is not bald" is not necessarily correct.

First of all, due to the ambiguity of the concept of "bald", there is no clear boundary between bald and non-bald. If a person has ten thousand hairs concentrated around his head, can it be said that he is not bald?

Therefore, a person with 10,000 hairs on his head can be either bald or bald.

Reasoning based on vague premises leads to vague conclusions.

You can take your children to do this:

Let your children recall it, or you can try to observe what kinds of bald people there are, and use this paradox to train your children of observation.

Let the child count how much hair he loses every day, and talk to the child about why he keeps losing hair but is not bald yet.

10. The God Paradox

A few centuries ago, the Holy See published a book that used the most popular mathematical inference at the time to derive "God is omnipotent."

Then here comes the question:

A wise man couldn’t sit still on the spot and got up and asked, “Can he build a stone that he can’t lift?”

Brainstorming time:

If he cannot create such a stone, then he is not omnipotent. If he can create it, then there is a stone that he cannot lift, which means that He is not omnipotent.

At this point, children may wonder, since God is not omnipotent, why do everyone still believe in Him?

Among religious believers, the most common and most recognized view is that "cannot lift" is a meaningless condition. Other responses generally stated that the question itself is a contradiction, like "a square in a circle."

You can take your children to do this:

Talk to your children about why religion is so prevalent, and discuss why even if it is proven that there is no God or Buddha in the sky, many people still have Deeply religious.

Teach your children about the differences between my country’s religions and what their characteristics are.

Well, these 10 paradoxes are actually not difficult to understand. Thinking about these paradoxes can not only exercise logical thinking, but also exercise children's eloquence and improve their debating skills.

These paradoxes can also let children know that things are not one-sided. When you look at the world from another angle, the world will be different from now on. Children's vision will become broad and comprehensive, and they can learn to see things from multiple angles. Look at the problem.

While trying to understand, don’t forget to think more about how to solve these paradoxes with your children.

When something becomes absolute, loopholes will inevitably appear, so "paradoxes have no solution" is also a false proposition.

Use your brain with your children, you will definitely solve these paradoxes!