What is Bertrand Russels Barber Paradox?

Logical paradoxes are some of the most infuriating and frustrating problems that we can try to solve. As humans, we always want to find an answer and we naturally assume that an answer must exist. In the case of Bertrand Russell’s Barber Paradox, a solution does exist, but it becomes even less obvious than other statements like it. Proposed by Bertrand Russell in the early 1900s, the barber paradox introduces a town where every single resident must be clean-shaven. There exists a barber in this town who only shaves residents who do not shave themselves. These statements may seem simple at first, but a paradoxical proposition arises: who shaves the barber? Let’s take a look and see just what’s going on in this puzzling paradox... All images courtesy of Creative Commons or protected under Fair Use. For questions or concerns about the use of any media, please contact the page directly.