A Revenge-Immune Solution to the Semantic Paradoxes

The paper offers a solution to the semantic paradoxes, one in which (1) we keep the unrestricted truth schema True(A)A, and (2) the object language can include its own metalanguage. Because of the first feature, classical logic must be restricted, but full classical reasoning applies in ordinary contexts, including standard set theory. The more general logic that replaces classical logic includes a principle of substitutivity of equivalents, which with the truth schema leads to the general intersubstitutivity of True(A) with A within the language.The logic is also shown to have the resources required to represent the way in which sentences (like the Liar sentence and the Curry sentence) that lead to paradox in classical logic are defective. We can in fact define a hierarchy of defectiveness predicates within the language. Contrary to claims that any solution to the paradoxes just breeds further paradoxes (revenge problems) involving defectiveness predicates, there is a general consistency/conservativeness proof that shows that talk of truth and the various levels of defectiveness can all be made coherent together within a single object language.