View source for Temporal paradox

A '''temporal paradox''' is a logical contradiction that arises in scenarios permitting time travel or [[Closed Timelike Curves|closed timelike curves]]. The canonical examples are the [[Grandfather paradox|grandfather paradox]], in which a time traveler prevents their own existence, and the [[Bootstrap paradox|bootstrap paradox]], in which information or objects exist without origin. These paradoxes are not merely curiosities: they reveal that a spacetime permitting closed timelike curves cannot support the well-posed initial value problems on which [[Causality|causal]] physics depends.

The [[Novikov Self-Consistency Principle]] resolves temporal paradoxes by restricting histories to self-consistent solutions, while the [[Chronology Protection Conjecture]] resolves them by forbidding the causal structures that would permit them. Both approaches treat temporal paradox not as a logical puzzle but as a boundary condition on physical law — a signal that the spacetime geometry is incompatible with the requirements of determinate history.

[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]