"This sentence is false". Is this sentence true or false?
My attempt:
If this sentence were true, then what it says would be the truth , it implies that it is false which is a contradiction. if it were false then it is false that this sentence is false, hence it is true which is also a contradiction. So this sentence can neither be true be true nor false. Is my reasoning correct?
PS: I would like to see more of such statements.
Great question. This is an example of the liar paradox and is studied in the scholastic logic of insolubles. What you did was prove using the self-principle of the excluded middle (every proposition is either true or false) that this sentence (this sentence is false) can neither have truth or falsity because truth implies falsity and falsity implies truth. Consequently, since the definition of a proposition is that of a declarative sentence having truth or falsity, this sentence (this sentence is false) can not even be a proposition. So it is called a self-contradictory non-propositional sentence. This is different from p:(no proposition is true). Supposing p to be true, no proposition is true. Therefore, the proposition p can not be true. Therefore, p is false. But if p is false so that (some proposition is true) there is no implication of the truth of p nor any contradiction. Therefore, p is a self-contradictory proposition as distinguished from (this sentence is false).