Editing Epimenides paradox (section)

== References by other authors==
All of the works of Epimenides are now lost, and known only through quotations by other authors. The quotation from the ''Cretica'' of Epimenides is given by R.N. Longenecker, "Acts of the Apostles", in volume 9 of ''The Expositor's Bible Commentary'', [[Frank E. Gaebelein]], editor (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Corporation, 1976–1984), page 476. Longenecker in turn cites M.D. Gibson, ''Horae Semiticae X'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913), page 40, "in [[Syriac language|Syriac]]". Longenecker states the following in a footnote:

{{quote|The Syr. version of the quatrain comes to us from the Syr. church father [[Isho'dad of Merv]] (probably based on the work of [[Theodore of Mopsuestia]]), which J.R. Harris translated back into Gr. in Exp ["The Expositor"] 7 (1907), p 336.<ref name="Harris1907">{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=J. Rendel |title=A further note on the Cretans |journal=The Expositor, Seventh Series |date=April 1907 |volume=3 |pages=332–337 |url=https://archive.org/details/expositor190703coxs/page/336/mode/2up |access-date=9 April 2020}}</ref>}}

An oblique reference to Epimenides in the context of logic appears in "The Logical Calculus" by W. E. Johnson, ''Mind'' (New Series), volume 1, number 2 (April, 1892), pages 235–250. Johnson writes in a footnote,

{{quote|Compare, for example, such occasions for fallacy as are supplied by "Epimenides is a liar" or "That surface is red," which may be resolved into "All or some statements of Epimenides are false," "All or some of the surface is red."}}

The Epimenides paradox appears explicitly in "Mathematical Logic as Based on the Theory of Types", by [[Bertrand Russell]], in the ''American Journal of Mathematics'', volume 30, number 3 (July, 1908), pages 222–262, which opens with the following:

{{quote|The oldest contradiction of the kind in question is the Epimenides. Epimenides the Cretan said that all Cretans were liars, and all other statements made by Cretans were certainly lies. Was this a lie?}}

In that article, Russell uses the Epimenides paradox as the point of departure for discussions of other problems, including the [[Burali-Forti paradox]] and the paradox now called [[Russell's paradox]]. Since Russell, the Epimenides paradox has been referenced repeatedly in logic. Typical of these references is ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]'' by [[Douglas Hofstadter]], which accords the paradox a prominent place in a discussion of self-reference.

It is also believed that the "Cretan tales" told by [[Odysseus]] in [[Odyssey|''The Odyssey'']] by [[Homer]] are a reference to this paradox.

In ''[[The Second Sex]]'' (1949) [[Simone de Beauvoir]] writes "I think certain women are still best suited to elucidate the situation of women. It is a sophism to claim that Epimenides should be enclosed within the concept of Cretan and all Cretans within the concept of liar: it is not a mysterious essence that dictates good or bad faith to men and women".<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Beauvoir |first1=Simone |title=The Second Sex |date=2009 |publisher=[[Jonathan Cape]] |page=15}}</ref>