Goodman’s paradox

Goodman's paradox is a philosophical puzzle about how we decide what hypotheses are supported by evidence. Imagine you have a huge set of objects, some green and some red. If you see a green object, you might think "Most objects are green," but if you then learn that all green objects are also "grue"—a strange property assigned to certain objects—your reasoning about what’s typical becomes complicated. The paradox shows that our conclusions depend heavily on how we define properties and the language we use. It highlights the challenge in justifying induction and specifying criteria for confirming hypotheses.