Paradox

336 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PARADOXEnglish resembles London—a living, growing city withancient roots. There are modern sections laid out neatly ingrids. But many other neighborhoods sprawl haphazardly.London cannot be defined in a day. It is a motley of overlappinginstitutions. All of the useful generalizations must behedged and local. Paradoxes arise when we overextend analogies,when we lift expressions out of context, and when wedisengage patterns of discourse from their practical (andimpractical) purposes.According to Wittgenstein, most paradoxes can be nippedin the bud by bringing words back into their natural settings,by studying how they are taught to children, and by notingthe role they in play in larger practices. To avoid beingoverwhelmed by complexity, he also considers simplifiedlanguage games. But these artificial specimens should not betreated as ideals that ordinary language imperfectly approximates.We easily slip on the ice of idealization. We steadyour thinking by constantly returning to the rough ground.In some circumstances, we may find that the rules oflanguage really lead to a contradiction. Russell and Fregetreated contradictions as crises. But Wittgenstein comparednews of a contradiction to the discovery that a game has aloophole that would guarantee a trivial victory. If there istrouble, we may close the loophole on an ad hoc basis. Ifpeople do not actually exploit the loophole, then no repair isneeded. We can live with some paradoxes. Perhaps some ofthem, such as the problem of freewill, will occasionallytrouble us in a practical way. After all, we must sometimesjudge hard cases involving addiction, compulsion, and duress.But the appropriate reaction is to make small adjustments.We should not replace the arthritis of common-sense with theprosthesis of metaphysics.