ABSTRACT
I once heard a man refer to his income as limited, in order to illustrate the hardship of a class of men, of which he of course was one, in having to pay a somewhat high income-tax. It is obvious that this man spoke enviously, and consequently admitted the existence of more fortunately placed individuals who had unlimited incomes. A little reflection would have shown the man that he was not taking up a paradoxical attitude. A “paradoxical attitude” is of course the assertion of one or more propositions of which the truth cannot be perceived by a philosopher—and particularly an idealist—and can be perceived by a logician and occasionally, but not always, by a man of commonsense. Such propositions are: “The cat is hungry,” “Columbus discovered America,” and “A thing which is always at rest may move from the position A to the different position B.”
