Moving Target

What is the smallest integer that’s not named on this blog?

Suppose that the smallest integer that’s not named (explicitly or by reference) elsewhere on the blog is 257. But now the phrase above refers to that number. And that instantly means that it doesn’t refer to 257, but presumably to 258.

But if it refers to 258 then actually it refers to 257 again. “If it ‘names’ 257 it doesn’t, so it doesn’t,” writes J.L. Mackie, “but if it doesn’t, then it does, so it does.”

(Adduced by Max Black of Cornell.)