Paradox University by La*ra R*ding


Author: Terence Rajivan Edward
Abstract. I present a vision of a university in which each of the departments is based on having solved a paradox (especially for those who think that philosophers on here lack vision, in a grand sense!). I do so imitating a notable modernist writer, apologies for any political incorrectness.
Draft version: Version 1 (14th December 2022, bibliography edited 12 Sep 2026).
PDF on PhilPapers (smaller bibliography): https://philpapers.org/rec/EDWPUB


        Paradox University was a place where people came to be clever. But you could only be clever if you were cleverer than other people, and so Paradox University was located in an anonymous town full of people without intelligence, imagination, wit, fancy, humour, and even mere joking. The first department of Paradox University was the Department of Creative Writing. It was set up by Cosmima the Cosmic Scribe. She thought to herself, “What’s so special about creative writing? Should it not also be taught?” Then she encountered a paradox. Only economists would apply to the creative writing department. And you cannot be an economist and be creative. Everyone knows that. Also everyone knows that you cannot teach a person to be creative. When Cosmima solved this paradox to her satisfaction, she founded a department.


        The second department to be founded was the Anthropology Department. Because how could you do fieldwork for one year and understand a people? You could do fieldwork amongst the brown people, the yellow people, the grey people. – still one year is not long enough. When Lady Malinowski solved this paradox, she too founded a department.


        Then a third department appeared: the Politics department. A department must be scientific but once you have understood politics, you learn to lie and cheat and use misleading rhetoric. Nobody knew if the Politics department solved this paradox, but they loudly said that they did, which convinced some people.


References (or sources of inspiration)
Beebee, Helen and Mele, Alfred. 2002. Humean Compatibilism. Mind 111 (442): 201-223.
Available at:
https://andrewmbailey.com/papers/Humean%20compatibilism.pdf
(The opening sounds like Riding to me.) 
Edward, Terence Rajivan. 2022. An Easy One: The Paradox of the Creative Writing Department! Available at: https://philpapers.org/rec/EDWAEO-7
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Available at:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/55822/55822-h/55822-h.htm
And:
https://archive.org/details/argonautsofweste00mali
Riding, Laura. 1982 (1935). Progress of Stories. New York: Persea Books. Available at:
https://archive.org/details/progressofstorie00ridi
(See especially the openings of Daisy and Venison and Reality as Port Huntlady and The Story Pig.)
Strathern, Marilyn. 1987. The limits of auto-anthropology. In Anthropology at home, edited by Anthony Jackson. London: Tavistock.
(Suggests or implies the concern about insufficient fieldwork period.)