logic question?

Question

If you try to fail, and you succeed, which have you done?

Answer 1

I am not sure if "formal logic" is the right field of knowledge to answer this question (because according to the "law of non-contradiction" "one cannot say of something that it is and that it is not in the same respect and at the same time") but I'll try to give an answer on the basis of formal logic.

To answer this we must first define the success and failure outcome of what you try. Let say for example that you try to fail in an exam test "A" and let's say that the maximum outcome of the test is 100. Failure is less than 50 and success is more than or equal to 50.

So your argument is "I try to fail at test A" meaning that I have to score less than 50. If you score 45 then you have succeed. You succeed to achieve your objective which was failure.

Answer 2

Neither....what you have done was successfully created a paradox. Much like if "God can do anything, can he create a stone so big that he cannot lift it..."

Or...we can look at this whole situation from a more creative angle. Lets take live theater, Broadway even. Now lets say that you and I figure out a way to get thousands of people to invest in our little show, so that we no have lots and lots of money...We then decide that we should produce a show that would be the worst show in the history of shows, so that this "failure" will result in us not having to return the money to the investors. In short, we are trying to fail. And if our show goes bust, we will succeed in our plans. But let us just suppose that for some reason, the Broadway theater audience has no taste in theater at all, and love the show that we made ultra stinky in order to fail, and the show is a success. Obviously, despite the success, we are a failure. But, while in prison for attempting to con people out of their money, we could sell our story to a big Hollywood movie maker...Uhmmm...Mel Brooks, just to pull a random name out of the air. We could sell our story to Mel Brooks, thus even in our failure, we could succeed, because without the successful show that was our failure, we would have no story to sell....But seeing that it is against the law to make profit on selling the story of an illegal act that one was convicted of, our short lived success would be a total failure....

I hope you enjoyed that Merry-Go-Round....

Answer 3

It is impossible to try to fail. Whenever we set out to do something, success is measured by how close we come to our goal. If the goal is "Failure," then "failure" is a success.

If you try to fail and you succeed, you have succeded in what you set out to do. You therefore cannot call it a failure without lying. Others, who do not know what you actually set out to do may believe it was a failure, but the number of people who believe this would only be a measure of your success.

Answer 4

You have reached the goal you attempted. You succeeded in trying to fail.

Answer 5

Succeeded.

If you can't tell the difference, look at it this way. If you tried NOT to hit your mother with an axe you were throwing, but you ended up killing her, you've failed. Miserably.

On the other hand, if you missed, you succeeded. Get it?

Answer 6

It depends on who's perspective you are looking from. If it is yours, then you have ultimately succeeded in what you were trying to accomplish, which is failure. however, you may not always view that as a success...

Answer 7

succeeded to fail. oxymoron question. it depends on your motive on the agenda.