Discussion Prompt 1
Buridan was a medieval philosopher who developed a very strange proof for the existence of God. He claimed that he could prove that God exists using just two sentences. These are the sentences:
1) God exists.
2) Neither of these sentences are true.
Buridan's proof for God's existence has a curious side-effect: it can just as easily prove that God does not exist! Buridan was aware of this, which is why philosophers view this proof as an expression of Buridan's sense of humor instead of a serious attempt to demonstrate God's existence logically.
1a) Explain how the two numbered sentences listed above prove that the sentence "God exists" must be true.
1b) Explain how the same reasoning used to answer 1a) also shows that God does not exist.
Helpful hints: Buridan's "proof" - both for and against God's existence - assumes that the law of non-contradiction and the law of the excluded middle are both true. Make the same assumptions when you answer 1a) and 1b). You might need to modify the first sentence slightly to answer 1b) correctly. If you figured out the answer to 1a), the modification you need to make to answer 1b) will be obvious to you.
