Previous: Contents
We'll start with a joke and a question.
~~~
Here's the joke:
A man goes to see his doctor.
The doctor says, "What's the problem?"
The man says, "I'm delusional."
The doctor says, "How so?"
The man says, "I can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality."
The doctor says, "How do you know?"
And the man says, "I don't!"
~~~
Now the question:
If I said I was delusional, would you believe me?
Perhaps you shouldn't, for this reason: if I were truly delusional, I wouldn't know it -- that's the nature of delusion -- so, obviously, if I said I was delusional, then I must be lying.
And if it's obvious that I'm lying, you'd have to be delusional to believe me.
So if I said, "I'm delusional!" and you said, "Yes, you are!" a neutral observer could logically infer that I'm probably not delusional, but you probably are.
But if I said, "I'm delusional!" and you said, "No, you're not!" an observer could infer that you understand all this, that I'm probably not delusional, and that you're probably not delusional, either.
Is that clear? We'll find out soon.
