Wednesday, August 8, 2012

A circle

I just gave out our comprehensive exams in Ancient and Early Modern Philosophy. I did this by first saying: "If you are getting the Ancient exam, please put up your hand", and giving the Ancient exam to those who did, and then saying: "If you are getting the Modern Exam, please up your hand", and giving the Modern exam to those who did.

So, if x got the Ancient exam:

  1. x put up her hand because x was getting the Ancient exam.
  2. x was getting the Ancient exam because x put up her hand.
This surely looks like an explanatory circularity!

Fortunately, this one is easy to resolve: x put up her hand because x was supposed to get the Ancient exam, or because x thought she was getting the Ancient exam.

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