Catch-22 (dilemma)

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Catch-22 , also (classic) catch-22 situation , is a popular word in the English-speaking world. It describes a quandary, sometimes described in the original as a dilemma from which an individual cannot escape due to contradicting rules.

The term was coined in 1961 by the American author Joseph Heller and is also the title of his book Catch-22 and its film adaptation Catch-22 - The Evil Trick .

Origin and meaning

book

The situation described in Catch-22 is that you can quit military service if you are insane. An application must be submitted for resignation. A petition is seen as a sign of obvious sanity because it is normal to be afraid of military service. Logical conclusion: it is not possible to get out.

During the course of the novel, various formulations of "Catch-22" appear. The term is applied to various loopholes and quirks in the military system, always with the implication that rules are inaccessible and directed against those who are lower in the hierarchy. In Chapter 6, Yossarian is told that Catch-22 obliges him to do whatever his commander tells him, whether or not those orders contradict the officer's orders.

General example

"How am I supposed to gain experience for a job if I am constantly rejected for this job because of a lack of experience !?"

Meaning of the number "22"

Originally, Heller wanted to express the phrase, and with it the book, using different numbers, but he and his publisher finally agreed on "22". The decisive factor for this was probably the euphony of the number and otherwise has no further meaning. Initially, Heller was still working with the title Catch-18 , but discarded it after the novella Mila 18 by Leon Uris had appeared shortly before .

logic

The archetypal Catch 22 situation, as formulated by Heller, includes the case of John Yossarian, a US Army Air Force fighter pilot who wants to be released from combat flight operations. This only happens if it is examined by the squadron's flight doctor and found to be "unfit to fly". "Disabled" if every pilot who is willing to fly such dangerous missions, as it "would be crazy" already in order to volunteer for a possible death ( suicide squad , Kamikaze ). In order to be assessed, however, the pilot must first submit an application for assessment - an act that is considered sufficient evidence for recognition as "fit". These conditions make it impossible to be classified as "unfit".

The catch-22 is that "anyone who wants to get out of combat duty is not really crazy". Therefore, pilots requesting a mental fitness assessment must be healthy and therefore fly in combat. On the other hand, if an assessment is not requested from the pilot, he will never receive one and thus can never be classified as insane, which means that he has to fly in combat.

Therefore, a Catch-22 ensures that no pilot can ever be released, even if he is actually insane.

reception

The philosopher Laurence Goldstein argues that, logically, the "aviator dilemma" is not even a condition that is not true under any circumstances. It is "pointless biconditional " and ultimately meaningless. Goldstein writes:

"The dilemma is: What looks like a statement about the conditions under which an aviator can be excused to fly dangerous missions does not reduce to the statement."

(I) An aviator can be excused for flying dangerous missions if and only if of content, the content of which is a contradiction in itself (which could be a nasty way of covering up an unpleasant truth), is just a worthless, empty statement .

(Ii) An aviator can be excused for flying dangerous missions if and only if it is not that he can be excused for flying dangerous missions.

If it were a Dilemma (I), it wouldn't be so bad - an aviator would at least be able to determine that under no circumstances could he avoid the fighting. But Catch-22 is worse - a flood of words that mean nothing. It has no content, it conveys no information at all.

The Austrian - American communication scientist , psychotherapist , sociologist and philosopher Paul Watzlawick writes: “Admittedly, the example is fictional, and there is no Catch-22 in the American Air Force. It is a kind of caricature of military logic, but as with any good caricature, it gets to the heart of the matter: the reality of war or any other reality based on totalitarian violence is of a madness that no one can escape, and in this one Reality, normality is reinterpreted as an expression of delusion or malice. "

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Catch-22 or Moment 22  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short textbook pediatrics . Georg Thieme Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-13-170311-8 , p. 88.
  2. ^ Christiane Schlote: Bridging cultures: Latin and Asian-American theater in New York City . Edition Reichenberger, 1997, ISBN 978-3-931887-12-4 , p. 169.
  3. ↑ catch-22 in the lexicon dict-leo
    catch-22 in the lexicon Pons (original Pons entry - not just a user entry)
  4. ^ Origin and definition of Catch-22 . Random House Dictionary, 2012, accessed June 21, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Definition of Catch-22 (logic). Cambridge Dictionary, accessed June 20, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Example and definition of Catch-22 . Oxford Learners Dictionary, accessed June 21, 2017 .
  7. ^ A b Margot A. Henriksen: Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age . University of California Press, 1997, ISBN 0-520-08310-5 , pp. 250 ( google.de ).
  8. ↑ Steven John Rothberg: The Last Job Search Guide You'll Ever Need: How to Find and Get the Job Or Internship of Your Dreams! . CollegeRecruiter.com, September 2002, ISBN 978-0-9726552-3-1 , p. 202.
  9. ↑ John W. Aldridge: The Loony Horror Of It All- 'Catch-22' Turns 25th New York Times, October 26, 1986, accessed June 21, 2017 .
  10. ^ A classic by any other name. The Telegraph (UK), November 18, 2007, accessed June 21, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Joseph Heller: Catch-22; A novel . Simon and Schuster, ISBN 978-0-684-86513-3 , pp. 2011-01-09 .
  12. ↑ Laurence Goldstein: The Barber, Russell's paradox, catch-22, God, contradiction and more: A defense of a Wittgensteinian conception of contradiction. The law of non-contradiction: new philosophical essays. Graham Priest, Jc Beall, & Bradley Armor-Garb; Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed June 21, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Paul Watzlawick: How Real is Reality? Delusion - delusion - understanding. Piper Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-492-04515-4 , p. 38.