Idioms, Fallacies, and Paradoxes

Lottery Paradox

If there is one winning ticket in a large lottery, it is reasonable to believe of any particular lottery ticket that it is not the winning ticket, but it is not reasonable to believe that no lottery ticket will win.

The paradox was designed to demonstrate that three attractive principles governing rational acceptance lead to contradiction, namely that. It is rational to accept a proposition that is very likely true and it is irrational to accept a proposition that is known to be inconsistent, and is jointly inconsistent.