ABSTRACT
The heterological paradox, attributed to K.Grelling (1886-1942, died in Auschwitz) and H.Weyl (1885-1955), asks whether ‘heterological’ is itself a heterological adjective. If it is, it does not apply to itself, and so is not heterological. If it is not, it does apply to itself, and so is heterological. A related, but different, paradox asks whether the attribute (not adjective) not-possessing-itself possesses itself. Both paradoxes are of the kind sometimes called semantic (see PARADOX, and also RUSSELL’S PARADOX, TYPES). G.Ryle, ‘Heterologicality’, Analysis, vol. 11, 1951, reprinted in M. Macdonald (ed.),
Philosophy and Analysis, Blackwell, 1954, and in Ryle’s Collected Papers, Hutchinson, vol. 2, 1971.
