The Idea of Paradox in Initial Definition

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this excerpt, Vladimir S. Bibler attempts to show that the initial concepts of mechanics that were formulated in the 1660s are paradoxical; they result in contradictory concepts. However, this paradox was revealed only in the late twentieth century. When concepts turn to themselves in self-justification, paradoxes arise, as in the paradox of set theory. According to Bibler, the reason for this is the paradoxical nature of any theoretical system’s “beginnings,” because they border on preexisting and future “beginnings.” Bibler discusses the revealing of paradoxes in correlating the principles of Galileo and Kant, in the fact that Kant comprehended Galileo’s formulation of a new understanding of motion as inertial motion, which concealed contradictory determinations. He provides a definition of paradox in which a deduction completely refutes its own premises.