Paradox

Use in the book

The assumed name Democritus invites an expectation that Burton immediately resists: readers might anticipate an absurd treatise or a paradox about a moving earth and infinite worlds. The catalogue groups ancient atomism and later cosmologies broadly, without establishing that every named thinker held every listed doctrine. Later the astronomical digression does examine the “main paradox” of terrestrial motion. Scriptural claims are reported with their opponents, while astronomical consequences follow only if the initial position is granted. Paradox here marks a major disputed account, not a conclusion already refuted merely by its name.

The telescopic passages combine satire with argument. Astonishing paradoxes and inferences “must needs follow” if the earth is a planet; acceptance of Galileo’s observations receives a further if. Burton then reports the Roman condemnation and alternative systems, with the margin identifying 1616 rather than Galileo’s later trial. The next paragraph tosses the earth like a ball among rival theorists, yet directs readers to an instrument’s explanation and the alternatives suggested by sunspots. Mocking the contest does not remove the explanatory and observational work inside it.

Stoic paradoxes furnish moral arguments as well as targets. “All fools are mad” supports the preface’s expansive comparison of folly and melancholy, mediated through a Horatian dialogue that stages the doctrine. Cicero’s paradox that the wise are free makes self-command, not legal status, the test; Burton immediately asks who possesses it. Liberty and servitude already explains that English and Latin construction, as well as the later lover’s failed freedom (free man). By contrast, the First Partition explicitly rejects philosophical justifications of voluntary death as “prophane Stoicall Paradoxes.” Its ending then mitigates harsh judgments of afflicted people and leaves final judgment to divine mercy. A philosophical proposition and the treatment of a suffering person are not the same question.

The pairing “paradox, or problem” introduces a claim about wise parents and foolish children. Some maintain it, and “commonly” stops it short of a universal rule. Burton recruits examples and a physiological account, but the supplied note distinguishes Erasmus’s satirical speaker and warns that the quoted material does not establish the converse claim that fools father wise children. A problem here is a proposition to dispute, not merely an obstacle awaiting a practical solution.

Medicine supplies a sharper reversal. The attack on practitioners says every opinionative fellow defends his own paradox, whatever it is, while patients pay for new experiments. The next paragraph calls these others’ objections and his own weak apprehension, then defends compounds as a noble and useful invention. The continuation allows different recipes to serve good purposes and says experience teaches what predecessors did not know. Extracting only “his own paradox” would turn a staged objection into Burton’s final condemnation of medical novelty. In the water dispute, meanwhile, Joubert’s Paradoxes are positively cited against the brewing proposition already discussed under Defecate.

Religious controversy often makes paradox a hostile label. Claims about spirits’ bodily powers are refuted while deceptive appearances remain possible; the rejection of personal spirit instruction still permits harmful power under God’s permission. The religious synopsis then lists extraordinary paradoxes among symptoms attributed to heretics. The extended polemic describes doctrinal novelty as a source of civic rupture, and Burton applies comparable reproaches to some within the Protestant field, not only to Catholics. These classifications express his confessional dispute, not neutral descriptions or modern clinical diagnoses of religious groups.

Two apparent parallels need particular care. The Lycurgus report says mortals readily embrace paradoxes and avoid wrongdoing through fear of the gods. Its Latin margin differs from the English, and the supplied comparison finds that both alter Polybius’s reasoning about unfamiliar proposals and hope of divine help. Neither printed version can silently replace Polybius. In the fasting account, Burton’s English list includes paradoxes where the original Cardano margin gives obstinata opinio, stubborn conviction. Opinion explains that Latin family; the mismatch shows that the body’s paradoxes is not a literal rendering of the marginal phrase.

The final consolation stages an objection about eternal punishment, universal restoration and annihilation before “But... our Church” resumes Burton’s judgment and repudiates the “absurd paradoxes.” The next paragraph is itself an uneven survey of doctrinal alternatives, not one seamless school definition. Its practical conclusion forbids deciding who is finally rejected or condemning oneself or others; the universal invitation remains open. Tracking that change of voice prevents an opponent’s objection, Burton’s answer and the consolatory prohibition from collapsing into one assertion.

Related entries

Opinion: belief, assessment, opinionative and the Latin stubborn conviction.

Probability and conjecture: likelihood is not the same as departure from received opinion.

Demonstration and proof and Authority: how propositions are supported or rejected.

Axiom and aphorism: principles and compact rules need not be paradoxes.

Defecate: the existing brewing explanation and its contradiction.

Liberty and servitude: the existing Stoic self-government constructions.

Hypothesis and Earth’s motion: conditional cosmological accounts.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 3–5The paradoxical book a reader might wrongly expect.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 4–7The Stoic equation of folly and madness in its satirical frame.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 18–26Moral freedom and the question whether anyone meets its ideal.
4. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 11–13Refuted spirit claims, deceptive appearances and original marginal paradoxa.
5. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 8–10Rejected personal-spirit claims with a limited concession of power.
6. Subsection 6. Parents as a Cause Through Inheritance · paragraphs 11–13Paradox or problem in the account of offspring.
7. Subsection 1 Bad Diet as a Cause. Substance. The Quality of Foods · paragraphs 38–41The prior-owned brewing claim and Joubert’s contrary Paradoxes citation.
8. Section 4 Member 1 Prognosis of Melancholy · paragraphs 14–22Rejection of Stoic positions followed by mitigation and charity.
9. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 7–15Terrestrial motion as the main disputed paradox.
10. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 31–38, 1–2Conditional astronomical inferences, 1616 and the sunspot argument.
11. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraphs 10–18Private medical paradoxes in an objection, followed by defence and discovery.
12. Subsection 2 Single Substances That Purge Melancholy Downwards · paragraph 15A Paradoxes title in disagreement over aloes.
13. ♊ Religious Melancholy. Section 4 · paragraphs 24–26The synoptic classification of religious paradoxes.
14. Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of the Face, Eyes and Other Parts; and How It Pierces Us · paragraph 29A numbered Paradox cited in praise of beauty.
15. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraphs 1–4Cicero’s marginal title and the earlier-owned lover’s servitude.
16. Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraphs 2–4Political use of belief, with both versions’ divergence from Polybius.
17. Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraph 34The original marginal abbreviated Jesuit-paradoxes title.
18. Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraphs 1–3Paradoxes blamed for religious and civic division.
19. Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraphs 7–9English paradoxes and Latin stubborn conviction distinguished.
20. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraphs 14–18Comparable charges directed within Burton’s own religious field.
21. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 15–21Objection, confessional reply and the prohibition on final personal condemnation.

In this edition

“Paradox, or problem” becomes “paradox, or proposition”: problem names the disputable thesis, while paradox marks its striking character. “Main paradox” becomes “great paradox,” and the spirit passage’s plural paradoxes becomes “paradoxical claims.” The brewing phrase “it is a paradox” becomes “this runs against received opinion,” an explanation already present in Defecate. These local renderings do not make every paradox a logical contradiction or every proposition a rejected error.

Paradox and paradox. can be citation forms: work title, numbered argument or bibliographical abbreviation. Latin paradoxa means paradoxes, while In paradoxis means in the Paradoxes. The original Jesuit-paradoxes reference is likewise marginal bibliographical wording, separate from the modern expansion and the statistics it accompanies. Where the body and margin disagree, as in the Lycurgus and fasting passages, the edition keeps their separate claims rather than manufacturing an exact translation.

paradox

A surprising, disputable or counter-received proposition; it need not be a formally self-contradictory statement.

Grammar: singular and plural noun.

Original text: “paradox of the earths motion”. In the modern column: “paradox about the earth's motion”. A surprising doctrine is something readers might expect from the adopted Democritus name. The sentence disclaims that expectation; its sweeping catalogue does not establish that every named thinker held every listed view.

Original text: “that paradox, or problem”. In the modern column: “the paradox, or proposition”. A disputed thesis concerns wise fathers and foolish offspring. Some defend it and commonly qualifies it; Erasmus’s Folly is satirical, and the note does not verify the converse about foolish fathers. Paradox remains paradox; the adjacent problem is independently rendered proposition and separately recorded.

Original text: “that main paradox, of the Earths motion”. In the modern column: “the great paradox of the earth’s motion”. The chief controversy is the possibility of terrestrial motion. The paragraph reports scriptural arguments and opponents; its label does not itself decide the astronomical question.

Original text: “prodigious Paradoxes, inferences”. In the modern column: “astonishing paradoxes and inferences”. Consequences of granting terrestrial motion and planetary likeness are called extraordinary propositions. Must needs follow is conditional on if granted; a further if qualifies acceptance of Galileo’s observations. The continuation records alternative systems and the 1616 condemnation.

Original text: “lest there should any paradox be wanting”. In the modern column: “lest any paradox should be missing”. Sunspots enter the satirical accumulation of rival cosmological claims. The ensuing instrument explanation still offers an observational argument; satire does not simply erase its evidence.

Original text: “his own paradox, be it what it will”. In the modern column: “his own paradox, whatever it may be”. The objector accuses self-confident practitioners of defending any private novelty. 101-13 expressly retracts this attack as others’ objections and his own weak apprehension; 101-14–18 defends compounds and continuing discovery.

problem: proposition

A thesis or question offered for consideration or dispute, here paired with paradox.

Grammar: singular noun.

Original text: “paradox, or problem”. In the modern column: “paradox, or proposition”. Problem identifies the claim as a disputable proposition rather than a practical difficulty to solve. Some maintain the claim, commonly limits it, and the cited satire does not independently establish the converse. Problem contributes proposition; paradox is the neighbouring alternative designation, not part of the definition of problem alone.

Stoic paradox

A striking proposition associated with Stoic moral teaching, often overturning everyday judgments about wisdom, freedom or life.

Grammar: noun phrase, printed Stoicall Paradox and Stoicall Paradoxes.

Original text: “an old Stoicall Paradox”. In the modern column: “an old Stoic paradox”. The proposition that all fools are mad supports Burton’s expansive satirical equation. The Horatian source stages the doctrine through Damasippus reporting Stertinius; this is not a modern diagnostic equivalence.

Original text: “Tullies paradox”. In the modern column: “Cicero’s paradox”. The wise/free and foolish/slave contrast tests moral self-government. The following questions ask who actually has such liberty; the full English and Latin moral construction remains owned by Liberty and servitude.

Original text: “prophane Stoicall Paradoxes”. In the modern column: “profane Stoic paradoxes”. Burton explicitly rejects philosophical justifications of voluntary death. The later conclusion mitigates harsh judgments of people deprived of reason and leaves their souls to divine mercy; rejection of a doctrine is not a licence for unqualified condemnation.

paradoxes: contested tenets

Extraordinary or heterodox claims, frequently a hostile label for doctrines an opponent advances.

Grammar: plural noun, lowercase and capitalized forms.

Original text: “these paradoxes of their power”. In the modern column: “these paradoxical claims about their power”. Claims about spirits’ powers and bodily operations are introduced for refutation. The next paragraph allows deception of sight while denying real bodies and transformations; the denial has a specified object.

Original text: “most erroneous paradoxes”. In the modern column: “utterly erroneous paradoxes”. Burton repudiates claims of ubiquitous personal spirit instruction. He then grants spirits harmful power by God’s permission; rejection of these doctrines is not a denial of all spirits.

Original synopsis: “prodigious paradoxes”. In the modern column: “extraordinary paradoxes”. The religious synopsis places unusual doctrines under particular symptoms attributed to heretics. This is a tabular outline of Burton’s confessional categories, not an independent clinical diagnosis.

Original text: “more apt to embrace Paradoxes”. In the modern column: “more inclined to embrace paradoxes”. The Lycurgus report connects extraordinary beliefs with political restraint. An accompanying note finds that both Burton’s English and Latin change Polybius’s reasoning; the report must not stand as a faithful statement of Polybius.

Original text: “new doctrines, paradoxes, figments, crotchets”. In the modern column: “new doctrines, paradoxes, inventions and fancies”. The polemic represents competing doctrines as causes of division and civic disorder. The Devil is the preceding he; the accusations concern Burton’s grouped opponents, not a neutral account of every named tradition.

Original text: “as prodigious paradoxes as Papists themselves”. In the modern column: “paradoxes as monstrous as those of the Catholics themselves”. The comparison extends Burton’s rebuke to opponents within the Protestant field. Some and many times qualify the cumulative allegations; the accompanying note cautions that distinct groups are combined.

Original text: “these absurd paradoxes are exploded by our Church”. In the modern column: “our Church rejects these absurd paradoxes”. The final sentence repudiates the previously voiced alternatives about punishment and restoration. But marks the return to Burton’s confessional voice. The following doctrine contains alternatives, then forbids identifying oneself or others as finally rejected.

paradoxes: stubborn convictions

Extraordinary beliefs or fixed assertions, here loosely corresponding to a marginal phrase meaning stubborn conviction.

Grammar: plural noun.

Original text: “prophesies, paradoxes, madness”. In the modern column: “prophecies, paradoxes, madness”. The body lists paradoxes among fasting’s alleged effects. The original margin gives obstinata opinio, stubborn conviction, not a word-for-word equivalent; its Latin opinion family is independently treated in Opinion. The body’s paradoxes is retained as paradoxes. An accompanying note explicitly marks the looser relation to the original margin, which is not used as an identical translation.

Paradox: bibliographical title

A designation of a work or numbered argument called a paradox; a citation, not automatically Burton’s own judgment that its claim is absurd.

Grammar: title or numbered unit; printed Paradox and abbreviated paradox.

Original text: “Paradox dec. 1. Paradox 5.” In the modern column: “Paradoxes, decade 1, paradox 5”. Joubert’s work and numbered argument are cited against the preceding brewing claim. Burton says Joubert rightly supports the contrary position; the positive citation differs from his preceding dismissal of a paradox.

Original text: “paradox. lib. 1.” In the modern column: “Paradoxes, book 1”. Fuchs’s book is cited in a dispute about aloes. Fuchs affirms the preceding denial, while other physicians defend the contrary side by experience; the retained lexical quotation is confined to the title and book reference. Paradox. supplies the title Paradoxes; lib. supplies book; 1 supplies the number. The surrounding affirmation belongs to the complete source context, not this narrowed title quotation.

Original text: “paradox. 2. cap. 110.” In the modern column: “Paradox 2, chapter 110”. A numbered paradox supplies an authority in the praise of beauty. The claim and mythological examples are reported in an erotic encomium, not certified measures of worth.

paradoxum

A paradox or extraordinary proposition; the plural can also form a work’s title.

Grammar: Latin neuter noun; paradoxa nominative or accusative plural, paradoxis ablative plural; paradox. abbreviated in a citation.

Component access (Præfat.): In the the passage bibliographical citation, this component contributes preface; it does not name the entire work or define paradox.

Component access (lib.): In the the passage bibliographical citation, this component contributes book; it does not name the entire work or define paradox.

Component access (de): In the the passage bibliographical citation, this component contributes on; it does not name the entire work or define paradox.

Component access (Jesuit.): In the the passage bibliographical citation, this component contributes Jesuit; it does not name the entire work or define paradox.

Component access (preface): In the the passage bibliographical citation, this component contributes preface; it does not name the entire work or define paradox.

Component access (book): In the the passage bibliographical citation, this component contributes book; it does not name the entire work or define paradox.

Component access (on): In the the passage bibliographical citation, this component contributes on; it does not name the entire work or define paradox.

Component access (Jesuit): In the the passage bibliographical citation, this component contributes Jesuit; it does not name the entire work or define paradox.

Original margin: “paradoxa veterum”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “paradoxes of the ancients”. The original margin labels ancient claims about spirit government. The marginal placement is retained as printed; the body separately denies real transformation while allowing deceptive appearances. Paradoxa contributes paradoxes; veterum specifies of the ancients.

Original margin: “In paradoxis”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “In the Paradoxes”. The original marginal locator names Cicero’s work. The underlying free-man and servum constructions remain earlier Liberty and servitude records; the citation does not certify Burton’s subsequent grooming list.

Original margin: “mortales paradoxa facilius amplecti”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “mortals more readily embraced paradoxes”. The margin presents readiness to accept extraordinary beliefs. The following Latin serious undertakings differs from the English evil things, and both differ from Polybius’s recorded argument; the accompanying note preserves all three distinctions.

Original margin: “Præfat. lib. de paradox. Jesuit.” Supplied note translation or expansion: “Preface to the book on Jesuit paradoxes”. A polemical work title occurs in a source citation for college counts. The abbreviated title does not independently verify the statistics; it belongs to the original margin, not an editorial invention. Præfat. supplies Preface; lib. book; de on; paradox. paradoxes; Jesuit. Jesuit. The modern to the connects the bibliographic elements. The complete preface-and-book phrase is contextual, not the meaning of paradox. alone.

Earlier explanation: paradox

Earlier explanation: defecate · local use 1

For paradox, the passage, the passage, see Defecate.

Earlier explanation: wise men are free, but fools are slaves

Earlier explanation: liberty · local use 4

For wise men are free, but fools are slaves, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, see Liberty and servitude.

Earlier explanation: Is he a free man over whom a woman domineers

Earlier explanation: free man

For Is he a free man over whom a woman domineers, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, see Liberty and servitude.