Why the Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever Cannot Be Solved in Less than Three Questions

Wheeler, Gregory and Barahona, Pedro (2012): Why the Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever Cannot Be Solved in Less than Three Questions. In: Journal of Philosophical Logic, Vol. 41, No. 2: pp. 493-503

Abstract

Rabern and Rabern (Analysis 68:105–112 2) and Uzquiano (Analysis 70:39–44 4) have each presented increasingly harder versions of ‘the hardest logic puzzle ever’ (Boolos The Harvard Review of Philosophy 6:62–65 1), and each has provided a two-question solution to his predecessor’s puzzle. But Uzquiano’s puzzle is different from the original and different from Rabern and Rabern’s in at least one important respect: it cannot be solved in less than three questions. In this paper we solve Uzquiano’s puzzle in three questions and show why there is no solution in two. Finally, to cement a tradition, we introduce a puzzle of our own.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Keywords: Boolos; Logic puzzle; Information theory
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP); Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) > Logic
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 160 Logic
• ISSN: 0022-3611
• Language: English