Russell's paradox

proper noun

The paradox that a set defined to contain all sets which do not contain themselves can neither consistently contain itself nor not contain itself.

Meanings

proper noun
  1. mathematicsThe paradox that a set defined to contain all sets which do not contain themselves can neither consistently contain itself nor not contain itself.
    3 more examples

    One concludes that there must be something fishy about the Axiom of Comprehension, and, over time, the replacement of the Axiom of Comprehension by the Schema of Separation was seen to resolve Russell's paradox. Indeed, one cannot apply the Schema of Separation as in Russell's paradox unless one knows in advance that the collection of all sets is itself a set.

    1999, R. C. Penner, Discrete Mathematics: Proof Techniques and Mathematical Structures, World Scientific, page 109

    The well-known theorem of Tarski that truth of sentences in any reasonably expressive language L cannot be defined in the language L itself is proved by a diagonalization argument similar to the argument involved in Russell's paradox.[…]It is usual to think that Russell's paradox excludes "large" sets like the universe, but this is actually not the case. An alternate solution to Russell's paradox (and other paradoxes) was proposed by Quine (1937) in his system "New Foundations" (NF): comprehension restricted to stratified formulae.

    2001, M. Randall Holmes, “Tarski's Theorem and NFU”, in C. Anthony Anderson, Michael Zelëny, editors, Logic, Meaning and Computation: Essays in Memory of Alonzo Church, Springer (Kluwer Academic), page 469

    2013, Greg Frost-Arnold, Carnap, Tarski, and Quine at Harvard: Conversations on Logic, Mathematics, and Science, Carus Publishing Company (Open Court), page 43, Roughly, the idea is that Russell's paradox reveals that certain logics suffer serious problems, and therefore these logics should be avoided. […] Here again, Quine asserts that the real lesson of Russell's paradox is that we should give up quantifying over abstracta.

    Synonyms: Russell's antinomy

Synonyms & antonyms

proper nounThe paradox that a set defined to contain all sets which do not contain themselves can neither consistently contain itself nor not contain itself.

Origin

Named after English mathematician, logician and philosopher Bertrand Russell.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Finnish Russellin paradoksi
  • Russellin paradoksiparadox in set theory
Icelandic Russell-þversögn
  • Russell-þversögnparadox in set theory
Polish paradoks Russella
  • paradoks Russellaparadox in set theory
Cite this entry
APA

Russell's paradox. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Russell's%20paradox

MLA

“Russell's paradox.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Russell's%20paradox. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Russell's paradox,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Russell's%20paradox.

Source: Russell's paradox on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.