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MENTAL MODEL · M0250

Moore's Paradox

Moore's Paradox
StructureHigh supportLogic
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-28

CORE DEFINITION

Moore's paradox concerns the apparent absurdity involved in asserting a first-person present-tense sentence such as "It is raining, but I do not believe that it is raining" or "It is raining, but I believe that it is not raining." The first author to note this apparent absurdity was G. E. Moore. These "Moorean" sentences, as they have become known, are paradoxical in that while they appear absurd, they are not logically contradictory.

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Moore's paradox concerns the apparent absurdity involved in asserting a first-person present-tense sentence such as "It is raining, but I do not believe that it is raining" or "It is raining, but I believe that it is not raining." The first author to note this apparent absurdity was G. E. Moore. These "Moorean" sentences, as they have become known, are paradoxical in that while they appear absurd, they are not logically contradictory.

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The proposition "P and I do not believe P" is not logically contradictory (P can be true while I happen not to believe it), but it is absurd at the pragmatic/assertive level: asserting a fact while simultaneously denying one's own belief in it undermines the sincerity condition of the speech act (the speaker must be presumed to believe what they assert).

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Source support: Explicit

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    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_paradoxZH · Explicit
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