The unexpected hanging paradox.
No.11842308 ViewReplyOriginalReport
Quoted By: >>11842449 >>11842474
The problem with the unexpected hanging paradox is, in my opinion, in the punchline:
>To her surprise, she is hanged on Wednesday.
This suggests that it is unexpected that she was called to be hanged on a specific day. But this isn't the question we were interested in. She expected to be hanged on Wednesday; but she also expected to be hanged on any other day according to her reasoning.
Consider it's Thursday, and the executioner would ask the criminal if she thinks would be hanged today. What is her response? "I expect your to hang me, otherwise you will hang me tomorrow which will not come as a surprise." And so on. If the executioner says "no, I will not hang you today", that will surely come as a surprise but only because it means that execution the next day will also not be a surprise. It is unexpected because he is breaking his own rules.
tl;dt she expects to be hanged every day, but cannot point to the specific day because they are all equally faulty. Discuss.
>To her surprise, she is hanged on Wednesday.
This suggests that it is unexpected that she was called to be hanged on a specific day. But this isn't the question we were interested in. She expected to be hanged on Wednesday; but she also expected to be hanged on any other day according to her reasoning.
Consider it's Thursday, and the executioner would ask the criminal if she thinks would be hanged today. What is her response? "I expect your to hang me, otherwise you will hang me tomorrow which will not come as a surprise." And so on. If the executioner says "no, I will not hang you today", that will surely come as a surprise but only because it means that execution the next day will also not be a surprise. It is unexpected because he is breaking his own rules.
tl;dt she expects to be hanged every day, but cannot point to the specific day because they are all equally faulty. Discuss.
