1. Discovering the variety of paradoxes

One look at The English Oxford Dictionary confirms what Aristotle likes to state at the beginning of his investigations: “paradox” can be used in many different ways. The first definition listed does not reflect how John Henry Newman often uses the word, namely as a “self-contradicting proposition or statement that is against reason or ascertained truth, and is therefore, in short, essentially absurd and false.” Only fifty years later, the most frequent use in the English language, dating back to the sixteenth century, seems to focus on the generally surprising character of paradox. As the dictionary states, a paradox is “a statement or tenet contrary to received opinion or belief; often with the implication that it is marvellous or incredible; sometimes with unfavourable connotation, as being discordant with what is held to be established truth, and hence absurd or fantastic; sometimes with favourable connotation, as a correction of vulgar error.”

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