The liar paradox on the borders of truth and contradiction in Islamic thought: A study centered on Âgā Husayn al-Khānsārī's solution

The liar Paradox, which is a problem suggesting that something is wrong with non-Contradiction principle, has been addressed in many aspects in the history of Islamic thought, thus, different dimensions of the problem have been identified on the one hand and various solution proposals have been put forward on the other. Among these, Āgā Husayn al-Khānsārī's (d. 1098/1687) analysis of the paradox deserves special attention both in terms of the way he presents the problem in the paradox and his proposed solution to the problem. According to al-Khānsārī, a paradoxical statement is a declarative sentence (khabar). However, when the statement does not contain representation of reality, this statement cannot hold one of the values of truth or falsity. On the other hand, it is possible for a paradoxical statement that is the same at the literal level to be true or false in different respects. This thesis, which focuses on al-Khānsārī's solution, consists of two chapters. In the first part, paradox solutions until al-Khānsārī are presented, and in the second part, which corresponds to the main part, al-Khānsārī's solution is analyzed with its logical and semantic extensions. In this way, on the one hand, an interpretation of al-Khānsārī's comprehension of the problem is presented, and on the other hand, a reading of his original solution is proposed. Throughout the analysis, both the points from which al-Khānsārī drew inspiration from previous scholars and the points that he himself drew attention to for the first time were pointed out. Thus, the questions of what remains the same and what differs in al-Khānsārī's solution (i.e., the question of identiy and difference) compared to previous thinkers are answered.