Mad Hatter Paradox.

DEFINITION: Mad as a Hatter  – someone is said to be mad as a hatter iff there exists a mental illness (madness) from which they suffer, and they’re ignorant of its existence.

Now, consider someone asserting “I know that I’m mad as a hatter”. Call it the Mad Hatter sentence, and denote it with MH.

Is MH true or false?

Suppose MH is true. So it’s true that the person uttering it knows that they’re mad as a hatter. But by knowing that they are mad as a hatter they’re aware of the illness they purport to be suffering from, i.e. being mad as a hatter and so by definition fail to satisfy the conditions for being mad as a hatter. Hence MH is false, it seems.

But if they are not mad as a hatter, and assert a knowledge of being such, the person asserting MH is oblivious of that ignorance (them in fact not being mad as a hatter), a delusion of sorts, and hence qualifies them for being mad as a hatter, thus rendering MH true - but we know where that leads.