This sentence is false.

@Gnostic,

Reminds me of Russell's paradox of sets. The set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Is the set a member of itself? If it is then it isn't, if it isn't then it is.

@Soul Brother,

Soul Brother;165657 wrote:

To reach the flag and carry it along further is no shortage of achievement and largely contributes to the upheave of knowledge towards a grand theory, but it is not my goal. As Einstein did with Newton, they certainly made an utmost impact by adding a phew more chapters to the book, and certainly these contributions where of paramount benefit not only to their fields but society as a whole. I do not hope to become a prominent historical
philosopher, and I do not push myself to be the one to carry the flag another mile. For now, I guess I am happy laying down my own road to journey across and explore how far I can go and what I can do, I want to explore with my own two feet before I jump on a horse. As for getting up to speed to add to the discussion, I think I'm actually rolling pretty fast already, after all I have a decent amount of time still ahead of me.

That's fine then, self discovery is important and stimulating. Working out all of the little problems might allow you to better work out the big ones, if you choose to.

Regards-

@Gnostic,

ur statement is a relational statement with out anything to relate to. its like saying "It is bad" you just havn't said what "it" is.

@greenghost08,

greenghost08;165916 wrote:

ur statement is a relational statement with out anything to relate to. its like saying "It is bad" you just havn't said what "it" is.

This sentence has five words.

Are you sure that you don't know what "this sentence" relates to?

@Night Ripper,

Night Ripper;166058 wrote:

This sentence has five words.

Are you sure that you don't know what "this sentence" relates to?

Oh, I know what it is you intend "this sentence" to refer to. But that is not the same thing.

@kennethamy,

kennethamy;166059 wrote:

Oh, I know what it is you intend "this sentence" to refer to.

Right, in other words, you know what I mean. It's kind of hard to see how there's anything wrong with a sentence that you understand the meaning of and which typically leads to successful communication.

@Gnostic,

when I said this sentence i was reffering to the topic sentence of "This sentence is false" which is a statement that relates to another statement and can not possibly refer to itself without edging up against the law of non-contradiction.

@greenghost08,

greenghost08;166065 wrote:

when I said this sentence i was reffering to the topic sentence of "This sentence is false" which is a statement that relates to another statement and can not possibly refer to itself without edging up against the law of non-contradiction.

This sentence has five words.

There's nothing wrong with the above sentence. You need to find another mode of attack against "This sentence is false" that leaves "This sentence has five words" in good standing.

@Night Ripper,

Night Ripper;166063 wrote:

Right, in other words, you know what I mean. It's kind of hard to see how there's anything wrong with a sentence that you understand the meaning of and which typically leads to successful communication.

But knowing what you intend to say with that sentence, and what the sentence means, are, as I have just pointed out, very different things.

I may know that what you mean (intend to say) by "chickens lay eggs" is that the Sun rises in the east (who knows why?) but that is not what "chickens lay eggs" means. Similarly, you may well mean by "This sentence has five words" that sentence, but the question is whether that is what "This sentence has five words" means, and, of course, what is the issue at hand, namely, does that sentence mean anything at all? (Or am I being pedantic again?).

@Gnostic,

"This sentence has five words" is fine if you add "The following sentence has five words. "This sentence has five words."

@greenghost08,

greenghost08;166071 wrote:

"This sentence has five words" is fine if you add "The following sentence has five words. "This sentence has five words."

No, all alone on an empty sheet of paper is written:

This sentence has five words.

There's nothing wrong with that sentence. You understand the meaning behind it. There's no mystery involved.

@greenghost08,

greenghost08;166071 wrote:

"This sentence has five words" is fine if you add "The following sentence has five words. "This sentence has five words."

Yes, that is right. But is irrelevant.

@Gnostic,

I'm with Kennethany. The sentence "This sentence has five words" is kinda meaningless in today's english but may be cabable of refering to itself(unlike this statement is false. which can not relate to itself)

@greenghost08,

[QUOTE=greenghost08;166071]"This sentence has five words" is fine if you add "The following sentence has five words. "This sentence has five words."[/QUOTE]
The proposition under consideration will have changed. What's in bold is true or false. It's true, for the sentence following the bold sentence has five words. But, we don't want to know if the bolded sentence is true or false. What we want to know is if the sentence following the bolded sentence is true or false.

@Gnostic,

"What we want to know is if the sentence following the bolded sentence is true or false."

The statement is true. "This statement has five words" does indeed have within it five words. (sorry im new havnt figure out how quoting works yet.)

@greenghost08,

greenghost08;166079 wrote:

"What we want to know is if the sentence following the bolded sentence is true or false."

The statement is true. "This statement has five words" does indeed have within it five words. (sorry im new havnt figure out how quoting works yet.)

I had pizza yesterday afternoon. This statement has five words. So, I suppose you're right.

@greenghost08,

greenghost08;166076 wrote:

I'm with Kennethany. The sentence "This sentence has five words" is kinda meaningless in today's english but may be cabable of refering to itself(unlike this statement is false. which can not relate to itself)

No sentence is "kinda meaningless". It is either meaningless or not.

@greenghost08,

greenghost08;166076 wrote:

The sentence "This sentence has five words" is kinda meaningless in today's english but may be cabable of refering to itself(unlike this statement is false. which can not relate to itself)

Alright, now we just need some kind of explanation for why sentences can't have truth-values that depend on their own truth-values. Perhaps some kind of hierarchy?

@kennethamy,

kennethamy;166084 wrote:

No sentence is "kinda meaningless". It is either meaningless or not.

What I meant was that it is not a proper way of speaking in english.

@kennethamy,

kennethamy;166084 wrote:

No sentence is "kinda meaningless". It is either meaningless or not.

You know what he means. He means that it has little meaning. Stop being a pedant.

---------- Post added 05-19-2010 at 08:49 AM ----------

greenghost08;166087 wrote:

What I meant was that it is not a proper way of speaking in english.

No, "This sentence has five words" conforms to proper English grammar. I think you mean to say that it's not a common or useful sentence, other than its current utility. Of course, we can't forget "By the time you read this..." which is very common and very useful.

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This sentence is false.

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