The easy examination paradox
pp. 151-159
in: Jaysankar Lal Shaw (ed), Analytical philosophy in comparative perspective, Berlin, Springer, 1985Abstract
Surprise examinations in a specified period are possible, moreover it need be no surprise that they are a surprise. That much almost everyone has found obvious. Call it "the strong intuition". In this paper I defend the strong intuition against an only too familiar argument discussed in an only too familiar literature. This defence requires that I solve a version of the examination paradox. But we will see that it is, unfortunately, only an easy version of that paradox which I solve. My solution will draw on points made by W.V. Quine,1 and by Crispin Wright and Aidan Sudbury.2 I think that Wright and Sudbury got the ingredients of the solution to the easy paradox pretty well right, but not the recipe.
