Paradoxes are fascinating: they baffle and haunt. They are among the most gripping of philosophical problems, for as we struggle through the maze of argument and counter-argument, there is the sense that the solution, the crucial insight, lies just beyond the next turn of the path. Still, most of the paradoxes of interest to philosophers are not mere intellectual puzzles. They raise substantive philosophical issues, and their resolution offers the prospect of increased philosophical knowledge.

This book begins by considering what a paradox is, and what the possible avenues are for resolution of a paradox. Chapter 2 examines a challenge to the analysis based on the view that contradictions can be true, and that the conclusion of a paradox may thus be both true and false. In subsequent chapters, the focus is on a detailed study of paradoxes that are particularly riveting and seductive (or, at least, strike me as so), and that appear to have considerable philosophical depth. The paradoxes studied are also linked by the theme of rationality: they raise difficult issues about the rationality of belief, the rationality of action and the coherence of our language.

The permission granted by editors and publishers to reprint material previously published is acknowledged at the beginning of the relevant chapters, and is much appreciated.