TheInsider

Whichever way you look at it …

IN PHILOSOPHICAL terms, a lemma is a proposition that can be proven, which makes a dilemma one that contains two lemmas. But there’s a twist — they contradict each other.

The classic example was Epimenides the Cretan, a sophist circa 600BC, who once agreed to teach a young Athenian the law. The Athenian agreed to pay Epimenides when he had won his first case. But then he went home and never practiced law, and consequently never paid Epimenides for his tuition.

Epimenides sued, arguing that if he won the case, then by the