Paradoxes of Denotation

Bertrand Russell's "Berry's paradox" (1906) is one of the few paradoxes that is a paradox of definability. The traditional terminology of definability may be misleading for two reasons: (1) the term definable may be deceptive, & (2) the paradoxes do not turn on any technical sense of definition. It is suggested that these are really paradoxes of denotation, which are reviewed. A singularity solution to these paradoxes is offered in which a simple paradox of denotation is presented. The main ideas of the singularity proposal are compared to a strict Tarskian approach. The bearing of the singularity proposal on the issue of semantic universality is considered. The singularity solution as an approach that applies to semantic paradoxes in general is discussed. 28 References. A. Hernandez