The barber paradox... fun stuff

P

Park_Ranger

Active member
alright try to answer the paradox. If you have previous knowledge of this paradox, or looked up the answer on the internet, please refrain from commenting on this thread; i just don't want anyone to spoil the answer for those who are actually trying to figure it out with their brains.

Suppose there is a town with just one male barber; and that every man in the town keeps himself clean-shaven: some by shaving themselves, some by attending the barber. It seems reasonable to imagine that the barber obeys the following rule: He shaves all and only those men in town who do not shave themselves. Who shaves the barber?
 
His wife? Or some other female? You said there's only one MALE barber in the town, you never specified if there was a female barber.
 
he can't shave himself. if this were the case, then he wouldn't follow the rule of shaving every man that didn't shave himself. if he shaved himself, he would be shaving every man that didn't shave himself, and shave himself. this is a contradiction
 
Well then his paradox is flawed, there is no place where there are rules like this, it is not applicable to the real world so it is therefor not worth my time thinking about. That is my point and I am sticking to it
 
if he only shaves those that don't shave themselves, how can he shave himself...the rule contradicts itself...??
 
He can't have a beard. It says that all the men are clean shaven, and if a man doesn't shave himself, he must be shaved by the barber. If the barber doesn't shave off his own beard, he's breaking his rule by not shaving every man who does not shave himself, but on the other hand, if he does shave his beard, he's breaking his rule of only shaving people who don't shave themselves. Hence why it's a paradox.
 
alright, your statement is true. one could say that star wars is not applicable to the real world so it is therefor not worth my time thinking about it. this is true, but star wars is awesome and fun; just as this paradox is supposed to be for fun.
 
let me simplify this a little bit.

Suppose there is a town with just one female prostitute; and that every man in the town keeps himself serviced daily: some by servicing themselves, some by attending the prostitute. It seems reasonable to imagine that the prostitute obeys the following rule: She wacks off all and only those men in town who do not wack off themselves. Who "wacks off" the prostitute?
 
everybody shaves themselves but the barber.

OR
The barber has cancer and is going through chemo so he doesn't need to shave
 
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