Editing Liar paradox (section)

== History ==
The [[Epimenides paradox]] (c. 600 BC) has been suggested as an example of the liar paradox, but they are not logically equivalent. The semi-mythical [[Divination|seer]] [[Epimenides]], a [[Cretan]], reportedly stated that "All Cretans are liars."<ref name="PaulTarsus">Epimenides paradox has "All Cretans are liars." {{bibleverse|Titus|1:12}}</ref> However, Epimenides' statement that all Cretans are liars can be resolved as false, given that he knows of at least one other Cretan who does not lie (alternatively, it can be taken as merely a statement that all Cretans tell lies, not that they tell ''only'' lies).

The paradox's name translates as ''pseudómenos lógos'' (ψευδόμενος λόγος) in [[Ancient Greek]]. One version of the liar paradox is attributed to the Greek philosopher [[Eubulides of Miletus]], who lived in the 4th century BC. Eubulides reportedly asked, "A man says that he is lying. Is what he says true or false?"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://philosophy.about.com/od/Philosophical-Questions-Puzzle/a/Paradoxes-Of-Eubulides.htm |title=Paradoxes of Eubulides |publisher=About.com (New York Times) |author=Andrea Borghini |access-date=2012-09-04 |archive-date=2012-11-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111182009/http://philosophy.about.com/od/Philosophical-Questions-Puzzle/a/Paradoxes-Of-Eubulides.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The paradox was once discussed by [[Jerome of Stridon]] in a sermon:

{{Blockquote|"[[Psalm 116|I said in my alarm, Every man is a liar!]]" Is [[David]] telling the truth or is he lying? If it is true that every man is a liar, and David's statement, "Every man is a liar" is true, then David also is lying; he, too, is a man. But if he, too, is lying, his statement that "Every man is a liar", consequently is not true. Whatever way you turn the proposition, the conclusion is a contradiction. Since David himself is a man, it follows that he also is lying; but if he is lying because every man is a liar, his lying is of a different sort.<ref>St. Jerome, Homily on Psalm 115 (116B), translated by Sr. Marie Liguori Ewald, IHM, in The Homilies of Saint Jerome, Volume I (1-59 On the Psalms), The Fathers of the Church 48 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1964), 294</ref>}}

The Indian grammarian-philosopher [[Bhartrhari]] (late fifth century AD) was well aware of a liar paradox which he formulated as "everything I am saying is false" (sarvam mithyā bravīmi). He analyzes this statement together with the paradox of "unsignifiability" and explores the boundary between statements that are unproblematic in daily life and paradoxes.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Jan E.M. Houben |title=Bhartrhari's solution to the Liar and some other paradoxes |journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy |volume=23 |issue=4 |year=1995 |pages=381–401 |jstor=23447805 |doi=10.1007/bf01880219 |s2cid=170337976 }}</ref><ref name=JEMH2001>{{cite journal |author=Jan E.M. Houben |title=Paradoxe et perspectivisme dans la philosophie de langage de Bhartrhari: langage, pensée et réalité |language=fr |trans-title=Paradox and Perspectivism in Bhartrhari's Language Philosophy: Language, Thought and Reality |journal=Bulletin d'Études Indiennes |issue=19 |year=2001 |pages=173–199 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6169499 |access-date=2018-08-04 |archive-date=2022-05-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220515103337/https://www.academia.edu/6169499 |url-status=live }}</ref>

There was discussion of the [[liar paradox in early Islamic tradition]] for at least five centuries, starting from late 9th century, and apparently without being influenced by any other tradition. [[Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī]] could have been the first logician to identify the liar paradox as [[List of paradoxes#Self-reference|self-referential]].<ref name="Page 1 ">{{cite web|title=The Early Arabic Liar:The Liar Paradox in the Islamic World from the Mid-Ninth to the Mid-Thirteenth Centuries CE |url=http://files.davidsanson.com/research/ArabicLiar.pdf |page=1 |author=Ahmed Alwishah and David Sanson |year=2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816043742/http://files.davidsanson.com/research/ArabicLiar.pdf |archive-date=August 16, 2011 }}</ref>