I don’t get it
my brain just asploded
With a name like mike hunt I bet there’s
a lot of things you don’t get…
4 all of u stupid ppl:
if he lies, his nose will grow.
by saying this, if his noes doesn’t grow, he would lie, which would make his nose grow. but, if his nose grows, then he would be telling the truth, so his nose shouldn’t grow.
it’s a simple example of a paradox.
I didn’t know Walt was up there with Socrates and Emerson
hahaha @ mikehunt – it’s a paradox because if he is telling the truth, his nose should grow. but of his nose grows, then he is lying. and if he is lying, his nose shouldn’t grow, according to his statement, but would grow because he is lying. therefore this is nonsensical and a paradox. lmao
I think he’s lying….
what? i don’t get it…
This is by far my most favorite.
Look its quite simple if you get the joke its funny
if you dont, then you apparently have some sort of simian mind
solution : turn off PC -> go outside
its not hard people
Try this easy one on your friends…geta small piece of paper and write on one side ‘the statement on the other side of this paper is true.’ Then flip it over and write ‘the statement on the other side of this paper is false’. Hand it to them and sit back.
My bet is that his nose will grow.
-Normally when Pinocchio lies, his nose will not grow till the sentence is concluded.
“The world is flat.” *nose grows*
-At the moment that the says “My nose will grow NOW!” it is a lie.
By effect his nose will grow.
-Another example of this would be that hes says “The current time is 11:00 and 5 seconds” when is really 11:00 and 4.99 seconds.
In conclusion if by the time he finishes his sentence, the statement is false his nose will grow.
How can you not get this? it’s a paradox, there’s nothing to get! If he is telling the truth, his nose should grow but if his nose grows, he is lying and if he is lying, his nose shouldnâ€™t grow!
Paradox explained the way my kid brother even understands
So Pinocchio knows that if he lies his nose grows, so when he says “my nose will grow now” is originally a lie, and since his nose grows when he lies it will grow making his original statement true which means that his nose grew even though he told the truth.
because pinnocchio’s nose grows when he lies. so by saying his nose will grow, he will always be wrong, because if it does, he wasnt lying, meaning it shouldnt have grown. and if it doesnt grow, then he was lying, meaning it should have grown. that is why it is a paradox.
i keep seeing his nose growing and shrinking rapidly
No real paradox here. Unless Pinocchio’s nose started growing the minute he said the word now, he has lied, thus causing the nose to grow. Any who has watched Pinocchio knows there is a slight pause in between the lie and the growth allowing the truth or fallacy of the statement to be determined. Since the nose would not grow immediately upon the utterance of the word now, the now would have passed without a growth of the nose therefore making Pinocchio a liar and causing the nose to grow. However to the average eye, this would seem as if Pinocchio has told the truth making this a seeming paradox, but because of the pause between the word now and the growth, the now part of the statement would make Pinocchio’s statement a lie therefore nullifying the supposed paradox.
i actually like this quite a bit
is this worse or better than dividing by zero??
It is the liars paradox. Wiki it. It is similar to saying
“This sentence is false.”
Pinocchio was NOT invented by Walt Disney! It’s a novel written in 1881 by italian writer Carlo Collodi:
That damn nose is going to grow no matter what
I think I figured out a loophole:
He never said WHEN his nose will grow.
Yeah, betcha’ didn’t figure THAT out.
This picture is obviously photoshopped.
If you don’t get it, you probably never will…just think about it…
Haha, that is spectacular, wonder what his nose was thinking.
I think the thing most people are finding, including myself, is that common sense pops in and we think, oh ok – he’s saying now meaning he’s about to make his nose grow. In that case that’s all there would be to this single panel, we the stupid expecting him to grow it in a second ghost panel where the obvious punch-line could be. Therefore, the very clever “off-to-on-to-off etc” old paradox is completely overlooked.
Today is opposite day?
this is not a paradox. pinocchio could say his nose will grow and then tell a lie which would cause it grow. his first statement would be truthful.
His nose will now explode.
It is possible for his statement to be neither true nor false. It’s very possible that it’s just incorrect. As in a prediction. His statement wouldn’t be a lie in this case. No paradox.
My brain hurts
This is simple… his nose with both grow and remain small, simultaneously.
let me see.. it says Pinocchio Paradox, which means it’s confusing. when Pinocchio said “My nose will grow”, it depends on wether he’s telling the truth or not. if he’s telling the truth, his nose won’t grow, which will then falls under the category of “lying” thus his nose will grow, and if it grows, it’ll show that pinocchio’s telling the truth and it’ll shrink back to the original size… quite paradoxical if you ask me xD
Nothing happened at first
Dear god Alien, not only are you totally wrong, but your English is unbeleivably bad! For anyone who doesn’t get it Smart Comment Mark explained it perfectly.
i’m pissed right now and this is the most intelligent think i’ve ever seen
Flaw: When you lie, either your nose grows OR your knees will shrink so that default mechanism would go into play and Pinocchio loses! Ha!
haha @ alien – you’re completely backwards. If he’s lying, then his nose grows. If he says that his nose will grow, and it doesn’t, then he’s lying. But if he’s lying his nose should grow. But if his nose grows then he’s not lying.
I would interpret it as “in the future my nose will grow”, which is pretty much a certainty from other lies he may have then.
this is silly, of course his nose wont grow! The wood which Pinocchio is made of is dead organic material. There would no cellular regeneration to create such growth. It is preposterous that a wooden marionette would be talking at all. The only scientific way this could be possibly be conceived, is if by random chance a magic cricket wished upon the correct star by singing to it in a harmony which resonated with the light photons of said star to re-animate the dead organic matter. Of course this would have side affects of, such as the creating of artificial emotions by the wooden toy, as well as blatant homosexual tendencies
clearly his nose won’t grow that instant, which would make it a lie, causing it to grow
Love this paradox
This is not a paradox, sorry guys. A prediction about the future may be CORRECT or INCORRECT, but it can only be a LIE if the speaker has control over, or foreknowledge of, the events he is predicting. Therefore, his nose would not grow. You could argue that Pinocchio would figure this out, and that since he knows his nose won’t grow, he is lying and his nose WILL grow. But since he could figure THAT out too, that brings him back to square one and he really has no way of knowing whether or not his nose will grow. Therefore he is making a prediction with no knowledge of the future events in question, therefore he is not lying, therefore his nose will not grow. Pinocchio is WRONG, not LYING.
So, his nose will keep on going in/out
Haha…I think he will splode
his nose would just grow and not grow n times per unit of time
then you can just write a series for that function, and since it’s divergent (the series just keeps growing into infinity without bound), his nose would grow.
basic math ftw.
i didnt really think it was that funny. maybe it was my mood. I’m going to go watch america’s funniest videos now.
All of you are idiots. What he says can’t be true or false. If his nose doesn’t grow, it’s not a lie, he’s just incorrect. The cartoonist drew a comic based on incorrect logic.
We know that when he lies, his nose grows – but there is nothing to suggest a reverse correlation. We have not establised that his nose growing always means he’s lying. There is no paradox.
Explanation for the “I don’t get it”s
Pinocchio’s nose grows when he lies.
Saying, “now my nose will grow” by itself isn’t true. As a lie, it makes his nose grow. But if his nose grows, then the phrase “now my nose will grow” is true, which means his nose will not grow. But then that makes “my nose will grow” a lie.
Rinse and repeat.
I’m such a dork, here’s what I thought…
“My nose will grow” simply implies future tense, meaning “At some point in the future I will tell a lie”, which, I think we could all agree is probably the truth. Hence, his nose will not grow right now, but it will at some point.
To make it a paradox it would have to be “My nose will grow as a direct result of this sentence.”
Again, I apologize for being such a dork…
haha this was awesome. and i cant believe people dont get it! Very funny
This is confusing cus if he lies his nose will grow and it will also grow if he tells the truth.
Are there really people out there that don’t understand a paradox? Either parents need to keep kids off the internet from 10:30pm until 7am or we need to do some cleansing….based solely on IQ’s I say both. Good bye vast majority of Americans!
Oh but SmartMike is it way more complicated than you think. While it is true lying about the effect of a lie should cause said effect to happen thus nullifying the lie. You must ask yourself “What is a lie?”
If Pinocchio truly believes his nose is about to grow than he is not lying when he says it will, he is simply wrong. Being wrong is not the same as telling a lie. Lying is the act of deliberately deceiving others.
However, since Pinocchio has no reason to believe his nose would grow for no reason it is obvious he is lying in order to make it grow. So the question is does the effect of Pinocchio’s lie nullify said deception? I do not believe so.
Being correct (accidentally or not) is not the same thing as being honest. If the intent is to deceive than it is a lie regardless of outside events or developments.
Because Pinocchio’s lie happens in the mind before the words are even spoken Pinocchio’s nose would in fact grow. His nose does not care if this effect makes it appear as though he was telling the truth. The nose simply knows Pinocchio lied and is responding regardless of outside perception.
it simply states that his nose will grow. but that is a lie because his nose isnt growing. but because he told a lie his nose will grow. making it a truth, causing his nose not to grow, which infinitely causes his nose to grow then switch back. it just goes to show that there are some things the brain just cant comprehend
He has stated it as a lie, so his nose will grow. It does not become truth retroactively. Had he said “I’ll be a real boy”, his nose would have grown even though, further in time, he became a real boy. The moment in time he said “My nose will grow”, it was a lie because there was no reason for it to grow…..
never mind. I’ve lost you, haven’t I.
Technically the paradox fails, as he states “my nose will grow ‘NOW'” as in after the statement is made, so in order for the paradox to be valid he has to repeat the statement ie, he could be telling the truth because he intends to tell a lie immediately after making the initial statement, hence, no paradox.
Their might be other variables that make his nose grow, and maybe it was a lie that his nose grows when he is lying in the first place. Maybe it grows only for entertainment purposes. Maybe Pinocchios nose has become corrupt and craves attention.
I think the mechanics of the magic nose are not clearly enough defined for the paradox to be effective. Does the nose have a volition of its own? Is it effected by Pinocchio merely being wrong, or does he have to knowingly be telling a lie? Does it grow the instant the lie is conceived, only when the lie is spoken, or a moment after the lie is spoken? If Pinocchio thinks he is telling the truth, will it grow? Or is his nose an all-knowing appendage with an awareness above and beyond Pinocchio’s own?
I once saw a funny cartoon with Pinocchio’s head buried inbetween some hussies legs and she’s screaming at him “Lie to me, Pinocchio, lie to me!”
I guess you had to be there.
ah but he doesn’t say WHEN his nose will grow.
the statement is true, hes bound to lie sometime in the future, but he doesn’t say “my nose will grow right now”.
maybe thats what the picture should have said…
I stumbled upon this page. First though, “yeah, well, ok, nothing new, a paradox is a paradox, be it Disney or Socrates”. But, in fact, the funny thing is not the picture, illustrating a very common paradox… It’s the people actually not getting it.
Damned, why don’t we see where all those smart brains come from?
Wish us luck…
The problem isn’t the “paradox,” but instead the actual statement, which can be misunderstood as “My nose will grow from this point on.”
An actual paradoxical statement would be “Look! My nose is growing!” which would be contrary to the truth, and then make his nose grow, etc.
Of course, it’s really kind of a waste of time, because it’s fucking stupid (which might be a paradox in its own right: a trap is set to find the ignorant who want to appear intelligent, but really just wind up arguing about Pinocchio).
I have to respond, because there are not just 2 options here.
1> he is lying
2> he is not lying
3> he is mistaken
The third option conveniently removes any sort of paradox. Because he doesn’t control whether or not his nose grows (it is based on some kind of magic)he has no say in whether it will grow or not. Apparently, a third party decides whether or not he intends to mislead you,or it is some kind of reflex.
In any case, if he means to mislead you, it will grow. If he doesn’t intend to mislead you, it does not. If it doesn’t grow when he says it will, he is just wrong…he really means for it to grow, and is therefore truthful.
There is no paradox here. AerLingus and DeepJosh are correct. Socrates and others making temporal (time based) arguments are missing the point, but are very clever!
this is dumb and as you can see most peolep are too stupid to get it!!!
if you go back into time and see your self will you die since you are in the same space?
Will someone please explain this? I need someone else on this string to explain this.
And, if possible, please explain it in a way that it is semantically more complicated than the original concept.
Barring that, could someone please expose a possible technical loophole to this paradox, but if you do… do it with an air of intellectual superiority that belittles the original posting.
Ok, simple explanation of a paradox for the special people out there. The classis scenario of a man going back in time to give Hitlers mom some birth control to keep Hitler from being born….no Hitler, no reason to go back and do this….paradox, and the universe explodes….ge it?
Assuming Pinocchio is an actual living boy now, he is therefore constantly growing, creating new cells as he ages. Though it’s on an ultra microscopic level, his nose is growing, so he’s not lying. Paradox solved.
To those claiming that the ‘now’ voids the paradox, you should consider that ‘now’ is relative. It is not confined to a few seconds. To those claiming that Pinocchio is not lying, but making a prediction: it is not a prediction, as he is deliberately informing the viewer that his nose will grow, but this being a paradox, it will not. The only possible outcome is that existence as we know it will end and the universe will collapse in on itself. We can only pray that he never speaks these words.
theres no picture
I love this!
I don’t know which was better though, the picture or reading all the comments.
wat is pinochio lookin at?
am i missin sumin here
It’s a logic statement, he is not lying
Clever, but it’s not a paradox. It’s a contradiction. Despite even some dictionary’s claiming the two words are synonyms, they’re not. A contradiction is an impossible scenario – can’t be true because it’s contradictory (as is this scenario). A paradox appears to be a contradiction at first glance, but upon evalution can be squared. This is the Pinocchio Contradiction!
@woody: you’re my hero.
@/b/: i dont think you read the rules.
everyone else: its just a paradox, not the secret to life. look, laugh, move on!
hahaha this is great although it depends how literal u take the statement. the use of the word now implies that the nose will grow as soon as he says it, which it obviously wont. this then makes the statement a lie and so the nose will grow and the statement remains a lie. im not sure if anyone else will get this but let me know if you do lol.
my mind… it has been blown.
I openly admit to being not intelligent enough to get this. Please leave ‘you are dumb’ comment here:
the nose has been physcologically folded
Thank you, Max! I couldn’t help but think that over and over as I was scrolling through some of the posts
Clearly, his nose will first shrink to quantum levels, whereupon it will simultaneously shrink and grow at the same time.
Ahhh my brain!
Because Pinocchio is who he is, we assume that only a lie can force his nose to grow. The statement that his nose will grow determines whether or not he is lying. If he is telling the truth then he must be lying because his nose will grow. If he is lying that means that according to his statement his nose should not go, but according to the rules of Pinocchio it has to grow because he lied. Hence the paradox. In any eventuality his nose should both grow and not grow depending on either his statement or his nature.
Give me a paradox based in reality and I’ll be impressed. There there is no such think as a magically animated doll thats nose grows when it lies. Your observation is irrelevant.
It’s a variation on the classic Liar’s Paradox “This statement is a Lie”, which, if true, is a lie.
It’s a variation on the classic Liar’s Paradox “This statement is a Lie”, which, if true, is a lie, and therefore true.
At last, a paradox I can explain to my children…. That’s fantastic.
for goodness sake people, it IS a paradox. stop trying to make it not be and enjoy it. and in the words of whoever fancies saying them:
‘There are two errors in in this sentence.’
How do we know he’s really Pinocchio?
If the statement is false, It does not necessarily make pinochio a liar. It makes him mistaken. Being wrong does not make him a liar, Knowingly altering the truth makes you a liar. IF he knew 100% in advance that his nose would grow after the statement, he would be a liar. IF he doesn’t know 100% in advance then he is simply mistaken. NO harm done. No mixed complications in the events, ONLY in your HEAD!!
good thing 4000 people had to explain it.
I think that the best way to solve this problem is to look at it not from a logical, biological, literal, or mathematical perspective but from the quantum physical multiple worlds theory of the universe.
The first such universe would be a universe in which Pinocchio was a pathological child-eating liar. When he utters the phrase, “My nose will grow now.” His nose will grow.
In the second such universe, Pinocchio is an honest young boy with dreams of soaring with the heavenly angels above, not in the first choir of angels but, in fact, the sixth! For glory to he that vanquishes the enemies of our LORD GOD. In this second case Pinocchio is indeed telling the truth because he is merely mistaken, and being wrong is very different than lying.
In a third universe, Pinocchio has prior knowledge that this trick does not work. In this case, he already spoke these words earlier and it didn’t grow. He now has knowledge that uttering that sentence will not make his nose grow. However, knowing this, the current statement becomes a lie. This would cause his nose to grow. The opposite of this would also be true, or false depending on how you look at it.
Now, imagine a fourth universe- one in which time flowed backward. In this universe, we would know for certain whether or not Pinocchio was lying, because effect would precede cause. We would be able to watch his nose shrink before he spoke the sentence, “!WON WORG LLIW ESON YM”. Or, on the other hand, we might observe no change in the size of his nose- meaning that he was telling the truth.
In a fifth universe we would extract the truth the good old american way with batteries attached to his genitals and by putting his holy books in the toilet. However, this would probably only cause him to fabricate, and even believe, false information just to get the torture to stop.
In a sixth universe, time travelers from the 8294th universe would disrupt the events of the first universe by cutting Pinocchio’s vocal chords just prior to the even, making the statement unutterable. This action prevents the future event that would have occurred had Pinocchio’s nose grown, which incidentally, was the eating of the children of the time travelers which inspired the invention of the time machine. However, this universe creates its own paradox which can be easily explained with the same multiple universe theory. The time machine was both created and not created.
In a seventh potential universe, a woman (who knew Pinocchio personally) was in the room with him on that day. The woman later reported three goats wearing overcoats came into the room and outside the windows she could see Roman chariots and what looked like featherless chickens walking around the neighborhood. She didn’t recall whether Pinocchio’s nose grew or not, but she distinctly remembers that inch long ants were erupting from a gruesome hole on his right palm.
“youve gone off the deep end this time”
“i no. i even got into an email war with the site’s moderator. he said that my post was offensive and that if i didn’t stop posting it he would ban me.”
did he ban you?
“no, he said that i could post part of it. i had another fifteen universes! and some of them were really F#@(*$ed up.
Kevin you are wrong. He is intending it to be a lie so that his nose will grow and therefore make it a true statement – hence the paradox. Obviously you can’t really say if hes lying or telling the truth because of this, but his intent makes it clear that he is not really mistaken.
I think its impossible… we need another drawing with the result to see PinochioÂ´s truly intentions. xD
Suposing that the nose works like a real lie detector monitoring his brain and not what he says. Like if I say “the lyng detector is telling a lie”. We know with the results. If grows the sentence was just a malicious trick of Pinochio and should not be considered at all. Its just words not the real thing.
This is for all the smartasses trying to argue a paradox. THEY DON’T EXIST!!!!. A paradox is only ever hypothetical and if you look into M-theory ( A theory which states that if something can be concieved it can exist in another dimension i.e. the classic immovable object and the irresistable force. This theory is the one held to be correct at the moment as string theory breaks down at a sub-atomic level ) you’ll realise that any answer to this so called “paradox” is possible. And by the way it is sssssssoooooooooooooooooo shopped.
STOP USING THE WORD PARADOX!!!!!!!! just because the first guy said it… why have so many re-explained the image
i still don’t get it.
Wouldn’t he explode if he said that? O_o
obvs shooped. the pixels are all wrong, and the shadows don’t match the light source. n00bs.
According to the Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy and other very good laws of Physics which I can’t remember right now the real Pinocchio would never be able to say something like this, but since this is just an just a mere illustration of the real Pinocchio. It is perfectly “OK” to print something like this. If you catch the real Pinocchio saying this then try to catch it on video and put it on YouTube.
I think “The Daily Wierd” pretty much says it all.
Gusy I am 13 and I even got it!!! WOW….
The true question here is “What is truth”?
1. a logical figure such as this one is not a paradox, but a diallelos or vicious circle;
2. it is based upon a false premise, i.e. that a nose may grow when one speaks an untruth.
A paradox is a statement which reflects a truth, though the propositions it contains seem to contain a contradiction.
I am only 16 and I understood this… You people sadden me. :*(
Dun know what a paradox is… Sad.
Things that involve brain usage are never any fun…
it’s simple he is not lying, he is sitting up, so his nose will not grow until he is in bed, at which stage he will be lying then his nose will get longer until he sits up which will mean once again he is not lying, to which his nose will then shrink… this is simple maths people can’t believe you can’t see it for what it is
brix were shat
For those who are trying to find loopholes in the timeframe of the paradox:
It’s very cleverly both in future tense and with an “immediate action” word (“now”). He isn’t saying the nose must grow during his sentence, and he isn’t saying the nose will grow in the future (as a result of future lies). He’s very clearly stating that the nose will grow at the end of the sentence (the conclusion of the word “now”).
It’s a perfect paradox and wonderfully hilarious.
I enjoyed it.
Saddest to me is not just that folks don’t “get” it, but that many seem to think Walt Disney invented Pinocchio.
Clearly the nose will remain in a state of both growth and non-growth until someone quantifies it by looking at it.
i find it incredible that people don’t get this but i’m more amazed at the number of people who’ve tried to explain it to them. puts me in mind of the old sesame st. thing: ‘hey, you have a banana in your ear’ ‘what? i can’t hear you, i have a banana in my ear.’
HEY……..DO YOU GUYS LIKE FISHSTICKS?????
flurgleburgle – You hit it on the nose, dude.
The thread is way funnier than the actual picture! Priceless everybody, thanks for contributing to making my day!
The order of operations will determine the result here. Assuming the nose grows after telling a lie.
1. Pinocchio says “my nose will grow now”
If his nose grows at that instant:
2. The growth was not caused by a lie, but coincidence or outside interference, ends here.
Else his nose does not grow at that instant:
2. The condition “now” in his statement expires. Thus calling an end to the statement and creating a “lie” environment.
3. Pinocchio’s nose grows in a reaction to, and after, the lie, ends here.
That’s my thoughts on it clear as day.
don’t worry guys, its photo shopped, his noes actually does grow.
and yes, i do like Fish sticks, why do you ask?
i second max.. max is my hero of the comment board..
this is how he can defeat the evil curse that was placed upon him as a child
i like to put fishsticks in my mouth.
Dude Pinocchio is now a wmd. He says that sentence and the universe is destroyed.
I think I will agree with Max. Nothing like this should ever be taken for it’s simplicity. We need more people telling us what’s wrong with this picture. While they’re at it, they should insult other posters…. yeah, that’s fun too.
2 personal takes on the situation.
first off, and most importantly… being incorrect is different than lying. It is safe to assume he was merely mistaken and thus would not be a liar. He most probably was just testing out his nose growing abilities by seeing if he could make it grow on command, which… considering how bizarre it is… I can not blame him.
secondly, the correct answer (yes, answer) to the paradox is that his nose will in fact grow. The established rule of Pinochio is that his nose grows when he tells a lie. There is no established rules in regards to his nose growing by other means. Every other confinement of his nose size is theoretical. The universe will find some alternative way of nose enlargement in order to compensate for the statement and keep reality in check.
Well, we must assume that Pinnochio’s nose only grows when he is lying. We could just as easily assume that he has mastered the ability of growing his nose at will.
Or as the fella said before if he can’t make it grow at will, then he’s lying so only a tiny amount of time will have to pass before that statement becomes a lie therefore making his nose grow. Not when he stated but a moment after. It is the inclusion of the word now that would make this possible.
“My nose will grow now”
Simple answer, it grows a few seconds later.
By adding now into that sentence it makes it work. As soon as he says now it doesn’t grow making it a lie, which then makes his nose grow. It’s all about order of operation.
A better line would be “my nose will grow as a result of this statement”
Seems to me that based on available information, this is in fact a representation of paradoxical logic. I’ve read all the people’s comments saying it’s not a paradox, but everyone of them is injecting information that was not presented. My guess is that all of these people feel bitter because they cannot accept the fact that there are ideas out there that their minds are incapable of encompassing. From their point of view, saying paradoxes exist at all is equivalent to insulting their intelligence. These people permeate the world. They can’t separate their emotions from their logic, so they desperately inject just enough info to satisfy the idea that their minds are not fallible, and that they just explained away what was presented to them as a paradox.
This is disgusting how much all of you are arguing about the semantics of a proposed paradox about a FAIRY TALE! Lies in fairy Tale land are always subjective to the lie teller not universally true. For example if Pinocchio were to turn a phrase and say “I’m in hot water”(in trouble) his nose would not grow even though he is not standing in hot water the saying rings true. Fairy Tale universe would explode if he said this.
This problem in logic was first identified by the ancient Greek philosopher Epimenides, a Cretan who made one immortal statement: “All Cretans are liars.”
This is the real moment that Pinocchio became a real boy. Not some fairy turning him into one.
1. A verbal lie is an utterance that the mind of the speaker knows is not an accurate statement.
2. Since Pinnochio has claimed a statement he know’s to be false, he has told a lie.
3. After lying, his nose would grow.
4. After his nose grows, the lie that initiated the growth should negate the growth..
to me this would be more of a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ rather than a paradox, as a paradox usually involves a difficult moral dilemma that is totally within the decision-makers’ control. There is no dilemma resulting from his actions…
His nose grows if he lies, but i’m never seen anything saying that his nose *Can’t* grow in other circumstances. So surely it is possible that it could grow when he is telling the truth as well, it’s just when he lies that it definately grows..?
“Name” is correct. This is only a paradox if you accept the assumption that Pinnochio’s nose will grow IF AND ONLY IF he lies. The story, of course, does not ever propose that premise. The classic idea in the story is: If Pinocchio lies, then his nose will grow. If X, then Y. The author of this paradox has committed a fallacy of propositional logic called “Affirming the Consequent” by assuming that “If X, then Y” also stands for “If Y, then X,” in other words, if Pinocchio’s nose grows, then he has lied. To make this clearer, here’s a simple example: If it is raining, then the ground is wet. The ground is wet, therefore it is raining. (If x, then y. y, therefore x). This does not hold. Sorry to whomever created this piece, but it is not logically sound.
It is not a paradox at all ppl. Think about it. His nose grows if he tells a lie. Now lets check our understanding of the english language. What is a lie?… It is making a false statement with the deliberate INTENT to deceive. Therefore, you need more information in order to answer the question of whether or not his nose will grow. In other words, when he says “my nose will grow”, is it his intention to speak untruthfully or not.
Let’s assume for a moment that Erwin SchrÃ¶dinger’s dual state of both growth and non-growth is correct.
Now another assumption-
1. He is either intentionally deceiving you with the statement; because he knows, from past experience, that this statement causes nose growth.
2. He has never uttered the sentence before and does not know whether or not his nose will grow.
In the first case he can be either lying or telling the truth, depending on what happened last time he spoke the sentence.
If his nose grew the first time he spoke the sentence then the second time he spoke the sentence it would not be a lie because he would have prior knowledge of the outcome.
If his nose did not grow the first time he spoke the words “My nose will grow now!” then when he spoke it a second time it would indeed be a lie, and his nose would grow.
This creates a pattern of growth/non-growth/growth/non-growth depending on the previous outcome.
Now let’s say that pinnocio becomes aware of this pattern.
He can choose to utter the statement at a time when he knows that it will be a lie or when he knows that it will be truth.
At this point pinnocio can control the growth of his nose to some extent. He can grow his nose by lying when he knows that he is lying.
But, there is the possibility that he is simply mistaken or does not know.
Perhaps this is the first time he has ever uttered the words and he doesn’t know what is going to happen. But in this case by claiming to have knowledge of future events that he is, perhaps not lying (intentional deceit), but merely providing potentially false information.
So, the first time he speaks the words he is ignorant of the outcome. But, his nose may still grow due to a tiny semantical glitch in the argument- the use of the word NOW. The nose will not grow ‘now’ it will grow a moment after now. So the very first statement must depending on the way that he meant the word ‘now’.
If he meant ‘soon’ when he said ‘now’ then it may or may not be a lie. If he meant ‘right away’ then it would always grow when he said it.
But, back to this idea of prior knowledge, there is really no way to know whether or not his nose will grow due to the fact that the pattern of growth an non-growth might not hold.
Maybe there is some chaos in the the pattern of nose growth, maybe he said this line dozens of times and the results are completely random.
Maybe one day he forgot whether or not the statement would be true on that day.
In either of these situations, he has returned to the buddah-state because, upon gaining the insight of whether or not the statement would be true or false he also regained the possibility of not-knowing.
“To realize that our knowledge is ignorance,
This is noble insight.
To regard our ignorance as knowledge,
This is mental sickness”
Seriously, those of you who are confused about something as simple as this BETTER kill yourself before i do it for you. I hate you.
Ok Pinocchio was hilarious but the people who don’t get it AND leave a comment saying they don’t get it…well that’s an added bonus.
He is clearly a liberal. Liberals can change the meaning of words to suit their purpose. Such as “lie”. And “grow”. And “marriage” and “is”.
I love political cartoons.
@ Niagra Guy, I think you hate yourself. You pathetic loser, lmao.
Anyway, for all you others, could it be possible that the people not getting the paradox have not seen Pinocchio? Or is that mind blowing too?
By the way, his nose will grow. He doesn’t really know for sure that his nose will grow, therefor it’s a lie. Unless that little puppet has done it before….then he will explode.
Maybe it’s not such much a lie, and more a prediction….
I mean people aren’t called liars for saying “It’s going to rain tomorrow” i it doesn’t actually do so….
Yes, it is a sure bet his nose will grow, absolutely. There is no paradox in this cartoon. The fact that he included ‘NOW’ to the end of the statement makes this certain.
If in the current moment of reference for Pinnochio’s stated ‘NOW’, nose growth isn’t achieved, then his nose will grow. By the time his nose starts to grow, the moment of reference to ‘now’ has already passed, thus defeating the paradox.
LOOK AT HOW MUCH I KNOW! I’M SO SMART, EVERYONE ELSE IS DUMB! I’M BRILLIANT, CAUSE I NEED TO PROVE I KNOW SUCH A MINISCULE PIECE OF INFORMATION! Tell me this supposed Philosophers, why bother knowing such info if Pinocchio does not truly exist? By being a fictional character laws of all paradox are negated. He is a cartoon.
The people who are focusing on the word “now” are rather missing the point (and humour) of the paradox. Still, if you replace “now” with “at the end of this sentence” the paradox is restored since the precise moment when the statement is finished is the same exact moment that his nose will start to grow or not (thereby making the statement true/false respectively) and the paradox still works.
The only possible way this might not be a paradox is if the premise ‘his nose grows whenever he tells a lie’ requires not just him to say something untrue but also to intentionally do so.
Therefore, the case where:
1) His nose will grow whenever he speaks an untruth
2) He says “my nose will grow at the end of this sentence”
is completely (and irresolvably) a paradox.
Why are people saying his nose grows if he tells the truth? Pinocchio’s nose grows when he lies. That’s why this is a paradox, and why it’s funny.
He’s saying he’s a liar…..Yes I know that.
I don’t know if it’s a paradox, cause I don’t know if his nose only grows when he’s lying. I think you can’t just turn it around:
– all we know is when he LIES his nose GROWS
– to make this a paradox his nose can only grow if he tells a lie..
what I’m sort of trying to say here… how do we know his nose doesn’t grow when he does something else than lying
NOW! HE SAID NOW.
HE IS TELLING THE TRUTH, BUT STILL LYING!(ON THE GROUND)
LAUGHING AT YOU ALL!
HIS NOSE WILL GROW (NOW) RIGHT AFTER HE TELLS A LIE!
ok firat off any of u who dont get it are completely mental, and anyone who put like 3 paragraphs on here is also mental, its a stupid picture, enjoy and move on
If’n I freeze, I can’t hardly drop, and if’n I drop, I can’t hardly freeze!
lmao at all of you who don’t get it first off!
All paradoxes pretty much revolve around the whole philosophical argument of ‘does effect precede cause? Exactly the same as the ‘if a tree falls in a forest when no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?’ and anyone who simply says yes to that ought to go and raise their IQ above 2!
Without going into quantum physics explanations like Schrodingers cat etc….. you can assume that there is an uncertainty that will dictate the outcome, either in the form of of misunderstood concept (i.e. define a lie, and at what point it becomes a lie!) or something independent of the scenario not semantically involved in the proposition…
Okay, but what if Pinocchio says “My nose is growing”?
Why do some of the people on here insult those that don’t get it? At least they admitted their ignorance and asked a perfectly honest question, yet the majority of laughs in the comments are not at the paradox but at those that do not understand the paradox. Isn’t philosophy about the quest for wisdom, I feel many of you are simply philistines with philosophical names. I especially like the person who feels the need to mention Schroedinger’s cat for no other reason than it is also a main stream paradox, knowing a few concepts doesn’t make you wise. Explanation without ridicule would be more helpful.
His nose will continuously grow and shrink due to this paradox
hahaha i love it when people dont get it. its so simple yet complex.
Guys, I don’t really get it… OHH! I get it n-
What a waste of time and thought.
Dr. Mark Horndoogle was galavanting along in the arctic tundra when he was captured by extremely logical cannibals. When brought before the Chief, he was told “You may now speak your last words. If you utter truth, we will burn you at the stake, but if it is falsehood, we will boil you in oil.” The Professor thought for a moment, then made a statement that confounded the clever cannibals, such that they could only release him. What fiendish phrase did the good Professor deliver?
It’s actually quite easy…
The answer to the logical cannibals is: You will boil me in oil.
Pinocchio’s statement is a paradox.
with kind regards,
It’s like he says his nose will grow now and the word now means exactly at that moment so his nose would grow sense it didn’t grow at the moment he said it would. That’s just how I understood it. I doubt that I’m correct.
This isn’t a paradox. Pinocchio isn’t god; “lying” isn’t defined as telling a falsehood, but rather DELIBERATELY telling a falsehood. If Pincchio’s nose grew every time he said something that wasn’t true, he could predict the future.
For example, he could say “The economy will take a dive in the coming year” and know he’s right if his nose remains the same. It’s safe to say Pinocchio does NOT have this power.
Therefore, it’s an issue of intent. It’s nearly impossible to lie about future events, because you can never know exactly what is going to happen.
Pinocchio’s nose will not grow, because he isn’t “lying,” he’s just making a statement that can either be true or false. If it IS false, it is not through his own intent, therefore there is no lie involved.
Long story short: Pinocchio cannot lie about what he doesn’t know. He also can be “wrong,” but not be a liar. Therefore, his nose won’t grow and there is no paradox.
If the rule is: “Pinnochio’s nose grows when he tells a lie”. I think that his nose will grow as a result of this statement. Not because he told a lie (it would be a truth), but simply to preserve the rule.
If the rule is “Pinnochio’s nose grows when and ONLY WHEN he tells a lie”, then there seems to be a paradox. Though the way Kris explains it does make sense: maybe this isn’t a lie because it’s a prediction for which Pinnochio has no idea of the outcome and so it can’t really be a lie.
Lying is not the same as saying something that isn’t true. Let’s pretend I’m Pinocchio, and I see a bright light in the sky that I’m convinced is an alien spaceship. If I say “I saw a spaceship last night,” I’m either right or wrong, but because I think I’m telling the truth, I’m not lying.
In the same way, if I think my nose is about to grow, and I say so, I may be wrong, but because I think I’m telling the truth, I’m therefore not lying.
hehehe… nice comebacks. for me it is simple. the nose, as the ears are the only (if i do not mistake) parts of the human body that grow constantly and will grow as long as you live. so telling that his nose will grow now is not a lie. -.- super “epic” paradox.. overated already this epic word
It is physically impossible for Pinnochio to make this statement. If his nose grows, he is telling the truth. but his nose can’t grow unless he lies. Therefore he cannot form the words for this phrase, because it is an impossible outcome.
How can some of you people be so stupid? It’s NOT difficult to understand. Good Lord!
@Bmac: that’s why it’s called a paradox..
Of course it’s a paradox – damned if you do / don’t or undamned as with the cannibals. However on the subject of noses and ears growing constantly we must go by the evidence in the photo which suggest Pinocchio above hasn’t yet reached ‘real boy’ post blue fairy transmogrificational personification status and therefore is a puppet carved from dead if magical wood. Reasonably the wood only grows in one place under specific conditions – falsehood fertiliser. Therefore explanations regarding auto biological growth are in the current case moot. But who nose? See what I did there? Subtle.