Self-reference

A self-reference occurs when a statement refers to itself. Reference is possible when there are two logical levels, a level and a meta-level. It is most commonly used in mathematics, philosophy, computer programming, and linguistics. Self-referential statements can lead to paradoxes (but see antinomy for limits on the significance of these).

An example of a self-reference situation is the one of autopoïesis, as the logical organisation produces itself the physical structure which create itself.

Examples

• pentasyllabic (a word which describes itself)
• This statement is short.
• "Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation," yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation. (This is a version of the liar paradox, an example of indirect self-reference leading to a paradox.)
• If an article (See this article as an example) has a link to itself, the link is sometimes called a self-link. Sometimes this is done on purpose for technical reasons.
• Russell's paradox: The set of all sets which aren't elements of themselves.

Related articles

• Self-reference
• Gödel's incompleteness theorem
• quine
• recursion
• reference work
• self-similarity
• use-mention distinction
• Russell's paradox