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Wed 20 Jun, 2007 12:31 am
I am about halfway through this novel and I've been trying to come up with another example of a Catch-22, but have not yet been able to think of anything. The example given in the book itself is, "a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved."
Any ideas?
The idea of the Catch-22 is that you're caught, er, to use a cliché, you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't. A paradox.
Case in point. A solar-powered light switch with no energy storage capacity -- such an invention could only come on when it was light outside and would get brighter the sunnier it was, which is exactly when you don't need it.
I can't fix the hole in the roof because it is raining, but when the sun is shining there is no need to fix the hole in the roof.
Catch 22 seems to be an particular instance of Russell's Paradox.
In a particular country a condemned man is allowed to chose his method of execution by making one final statement which if true leads to hanging and if false leads to beheading. What happens to the man who says "I will be beheaded" ?
I'm reading that book right now too. It's a riot.
For a recent example,
click here.
fresco wrote:Catch 22 seems to be an particular instance of Russell's Paradox.
In a particular country a condemned man is allowed to chose his method of execution by making one final statement which if true leads to hanging and if false leads to beheading. What happens to the man who says "I will be beheaded" ?
I don't think that's an example of Russell's Paradox, that's just a variant on the Liar's Paradox.
Joe,
http://philosophy.hku.hk/courses/old/laurencegoldstein/phil2511/lecture4.html
You could be correct, but I don't have the energy to wade through this lot !
Thanks Fresco, that link was really helpful.
I believe another example of a Catch-22:
Interviewing an applicant for a job, the interviewer asks, "Tell me a positive quality about yourself."
The applicant responds, "I'm a very modest person."
The interviewer responds, "That can't be true, since a modest person wouldn't tell anyone that he/she is modest, especially after the question about telling me a positive quality about yourself. You can't, in effect, be modest."
Interesting discussion. I'm wondering...is the book good? It sounds pretty funny.
It's one of the classics. Not sure about the U.S., but back at home in Slovakia we have it on the reading list in high school. Loved loved loved it.
The book is very good. Hilarious and sad.
Some people like it more than others, naturally. Everyone's sense of humor may not be the same. It's worth starting, I believe.
fresco, It requires too much concentration to keep up with the article in your link. My head is spinning so bad, I'm going to have difficulty knowing what is true and what is false from now on.
IMHO the book is hilarious, but I know several people who thought the monotonous context was as boring as I thought it funny.
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