Paradox of Self-Amendment by Peter Suber Judge Putnam in State v. Jones (see Section 20.B) said that Protagoras stopped teaching Euathlus when he decided Euathlus was proficient. Euathlus protested that he was not finished; Protagoras then sued. The case did not go to a jury, but to a panel of judges who were so perplexed that they adjourned for 100 years. 3. See Aulus Gellius, Rinaldi, and Lenzen from note 2 above. See also E. Schneider, Logik für Juristen, Berlin, 1965, at p. 152; Ilmar Tammelo, Outlines of Modern Legal Logic, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1969, at pp. 122-23; John Bryant, "The Paradox of the Lawyers," Midwest Journal of Philosophy, 4 (1976) 1-2; W.K. Goossens, "Euathlus and Protagoras," Logique et Analyse, 20 (1977) 67-75; Raymond Smullyan, What is the Name of This Book? Prentice-Hall, 1978, pp. 213-14; Lennart Aqvist, "The Protagoras Case: An Exercise in Elementary Logic for Lawyers," in Wlodzimierz Rabinowicz (ed.) Tankar Och Tankefel, Uppsala, 1981, pp. 211-24. 4. Lenzen, op. cit., thinks Euathlus should win the third suit. Schneider, op. cit. thinks he should lose it. 5. The only other wily scheme that occurs to me is a design to make vivid a proposition for which he was famous and, indeed, that brought him pupils and income. In Seneca's words, Protagoras declares that one can take either side on any question and debate it with equal success —even on this very question, whether every subject can be debated from either point of view. Seneca ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, vol. II, trans. Richard M. Gummere, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1953, Epistle 88.43, p. 375. Since this proposition would only become vivid in the lawsuit if Euathlus had been sufficiently well-trained to pose the counter-dilemma to Protagoras' dilemma, the wily scheme might have included the demonstration that Protagoras is a good teacher, a claim on which he often boasted (see e.g. Plato, Protagoras, 328.a-b). If anyone thinks this scheme is a bit too wily to attribute even to Protagoras, then I will acquiesce. 6. One might well have solved this problem by giving Jones a directed verdict, that is, taking the issue from the jury and ruling as a matter of law that that Harris was Jones' accomplice and hence that there is no legally sufficient evidence to sustain the charge that he performed Harris' abortion. Many judges, however, will wait to see what the jury says before directing a verdict, preferring that acquittal come from the jury than from the bench. To a lawyer, then, Jones may seem less a problem in logic or self-annulling verdicts, than a problem in the timeliness of granting a directed verdict. 7. More precisely, it is being found guilty that implies that Jones should be found innocent, although this does not affect the paradox. However, in going the other direction, being found innocent does not strictly imply that Jones should be found guilty, only that he may be found guilty. Being found innocent means that Harris's testimony could suffice if the jurors found it credible, not that it must suffice. Hence, one might say that only Jones' conviction leads to self-annulment, while his acquittal is self-consistent. To logicians that would usually suffice to acquit Jones. The only problem with this solution in law is that (under 1946 Ohio law) Jones is guilty! 8. However, when abortion was illegal and women who voluntarily procured abortions were considered accomplices of the abortionist, many accused abortionists found themselves in Jones' position and wanted jury instructions to the effect that the woman who requested the abortion was an accomplice as a matter of law. These requests were usually denied, as they were in Jones. The jury is to decide who is an accomplice, and the burden is on the defendant to show that the woman was an accomplice. See Wigmore On Evidence, footnote 12 to §2060 (vol. 7, p. 444) for cases. 9. C.I. Lewis said all dictionaries are circular in this sense, by defining the words with other words that are defined in the same work. The series ultimately closes in a circle, and one criterion of merit for dictionaries is that the circle be as large as possible. Clarence Irving Lewis, Mind and the World Order: Outline of a Theory of Knowledge, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929, p. 82. 10. J.C. Hicks, "The Liar Paradox in Legal Reasoning," Cambridge Law Journal, 29, 2 (November 1971) 275-291. This article is more on logical paradoxes in law than on paradoxes of lying in law. 11. Alf Ross, "On Self-Reference and a Puzzle of Constitutional Law," Mind, 78 (1969) 1-24 at p. 19.n. 12. See the advice for witch-prosecutors in Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum (original 1486), Dover Publications, 1971, Third Part. 13. Richard Popkin, History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza, University of California Press, 1979, at pp. 181, 287.n.38. 14. "The FBI's Show of Shows," Time Magazine, 116, 9 (September 1, 1980) 14ff, at p. 19. 15. In chronological order the main articles are: Anon., "The Three-Cornered Priorities Puzzle," Virginia Law Review, 8 (1922) 550; White, "A Problem in Priorities," Ohio Law Reporter, 25 (1926) 116; Anon., "Priorities Between Mortgages and Mechanics Liens," Yale Law Journal, 36 (1926) 129; Orlo Kellogg, "Priorities Puzzle Under the Ship Mortgage Act," Washington Law Review, 2 (1927) 117-21; Anon., [Note on circular liens], Virginia Law Review, 15 (1928) 90; A. Kocourek, "A First Rate Legal Puzzle: A Problem in Priorities," Illinois Law Review, 29 (1935) 852; Benson, "Circuity of Lien —A Problem in Priorities," Minnesota Law Review, 19 (1935) 139; Anon., "Circuity of Liens —A Proposed Solution," Columbia Law Review, 38 (1938) 1267-78; Anon., [Note on circular liens], Harvard Law Review, 67 (1953) 358; Anon., "Circuity of Priority and Liens under Section 146