next   Art against art        next   Tautology       up   Concept Art       root   Radical Art            


Paradox, circularity and self-refutation






René Magritte:
La Trahison des Images
("Ceci n'est pas une pipe"),
1928-29




René Magritte:
This is a piece of cheese, 1937
   



René Magritte:
"Ceci n'est pas une pomme"






Ben Vautier:
"Je suis un menteur", 1959



Ben Vautier:
"Oubliez cette Toile", 1966



Ben Vautier:     
"il n'y a pas de vérité", 1988


The instructions for this piece are on the other side of this sheet.
The instructions for this piece are on the other side of this sheet.

Henry Flynt, January 1961.
(Two sides of instruction sheet.)
To perform this piece do not perform it.

Tony Conrad, Summer 1961

Do not abide by your decision.

Dick Higgins: Danger Music Number Thirty-Two
(for George Maciunas), April 1, 1963





Timm Ulrichs: Grabstein, 1969



William Anastasi: "I don't want this on my wall", 1998



Ruben Gutierrez:
"Words have no meaning", 2004



Les Coleman: Postcard
("This Card is Temporarily Out of Stock"), 2006


Literature on Paradox and Circularity



Klaas Schilder: Zur Begriffsgeschichte des "Paradoxon". Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Calvins und des nach-kierkegaardschen "Paradoxon". Kampen: J.H. Kok, 1933.

Patrick Hughes and George Brecht: Vicious Circles and Infinity. A Panoply of Paradoxes. London: Jonathan Cape, 1975.

James Cargile: Paradoxes. A study in form and predication. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Douglas R. Hofstadter: Gödel, Escher, Bach. An Eternal Golden Braid. New York: Basic Books, 1979.

Howard P. Kainz: Paradox, Dialectic, and System. A Contemporary Reconstruction of the Hegelian Problematic. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988.

Peter Aczel: Non-Well-Founded Sets. CSLI Lecture Notes, # 14. Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information, 1988.

Jon Barwise and John Etchemendy. The Liar: An Essay on Truth and Circularity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Jon Barwise and Lawrence S. Moss: Vicious Circles. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 1996.

J. C. Beall (ed.): Revenge of the Liar. New Essays on the Paradox. Oxford University Press, 2007.


Compiled by R. Scha, 2002-2007