ABSTRACT

The essential quality of paradoxes and oxymora is said to lie in their capacity to express the ineffability of the experienced. A first possible step towards the solution of contradictions inherent in paradoxes or oxymora may lie in the scientific rating of the degree of "paradoxicality" enshrined in a paradox. Generally the importance in oxymora is first to identify the opposite extremes and then try to understand the whole range of their possible mutual relations. Whether changes in traditional modes of cognition characterized by an extension from analytical to holistic and perhaps "paradoxical" or "oxymoronic" thinking is capable of dissolving the contradictions inherent in oxymora and paradoxes. The multiple divisions and the lack of understanding of their interactions due to complexity are the breeding place for contradictions. These contradictions accompanied by an accelerating pace of change of perception, in turn, help to explain the rise in essentially oxymoronic concepts.