Challenging The Intellect.

When I was young, philosophy did not interest me. Likewise, I found very little amusement in discussing current events, politics or psychology. I used to listen with awe to my peers, mostly males, who digested these subjects with a fiery passion in school, whether in class or on their breaks.
No, I rather escaped into the world of fantasy and imagination. Whether among pages of books or the silver screen, or by painting and drawing for hours, reflecting my dreams on canvas or paper.

Growing older, I have also grown to crave intellectual stimulation and a need to constantly question my surrounding and the world we live in. I guess in some way, as we mature, our own existence and the origins to everything we see become of interest, as we try to find our own solution to the ever lasting enigma of who we are, where did we come from and where we are going. Or; did the egg come before the chicken...?

Recently I contemplated the idea of the paradox, a source of endless discussion, study and observation. Paradox simply explained is a situation in which something seems both true and false. A contradiction, if you will. At times, the term is also used about surprising situations or dilemmas.

There is a variety of paradoxes and they are even sorted into lists, depending on the subject or theme. Some of them are fantastically intriguing to ponder, making my head spin and my brain cells work on overload, until I give up as I simply can not grasp the concept. Furthermore, discussing paradoxes can lead to quiet stimulating conversations. And the best cinematography - whether the film is of a science fiction nature or not - is in my opinion based on the subject of paradoxes.


Here are my favorites:

Grandfathers Paradox.The grandfather paradox has been used to argue that backwards time travel must be impossible. In short, the paradox contains this statement: You travel back in time and kill your grandfather before he conceives one of your parents, which precludes your own conception and, therefore, you couldn't go back in time and kill your grandfather.

Predestination Paradox. Another time travel paradox, dealing with the irreversible effect on the future, while traveling back in time; A man travels back in time to discover the cause of a famous fire. While in the building where the fire started, he accidentally knocks over a kerosene lantern and causes a fire, the same fire that would inspire him, years later, to travel back in time.

Ship Of Theseus. This is a paradox that raises the question of whether an object which has had all its component parts replaced remains fundamentally the same object. It seems like you can replace any component of a ship, and it will still be the same ship. So you can replace them all, one at a time, and it will still be the same ship. But then you can take all the original pieces, and assemble them into a ship. That, too, is the same ship with which you started.



(Note: All images used in this post complimentary of photobucket.com)