In ancient Greece, the "liar paradox" discovered by Epimenides, a Crete philosopher (about 6th century BC) can be regarded as the earliest paradox discovered by people. In the 4th century BC, Aubrey revised it into "the enhanced liar paradox". On this basis, people construct an equivalent "eternal liar paradox". Zhi Nuo (about 490 BC-430 BC), a representative figure of Elijah School, put forward four paradoxes about sports (dichotomy paradox, Achilles' tortoise-chasing paradox, fixed arrow paradox and playground paradox), which are particularly famous and still reverberate.

There are also many paradoxes in China's ancient philosophy. For example, Hui Shi, a logician in the Warring States Period (about 370 BC-3 BC18B), said that "the Japanese side is arrogant, and things are alive but not dead" and "one foot pestle, half a day is inexhaustible"; The paradox of spear and shield recorded in Han Feizi seems absurd on the surface, but there are some dialectical ideological contents lurking in it.

The famous paradoxes in modern times include Galileo's paradox, Becquerel's paradox, Kant's antinomy, set theory paradox and so on. There are light speed paradox, twin paradox, EPR paradox, integrity paradox and so on in modern times. Logically, these paradoxes are all contradictions in thinking, and epistemologically, they are reflections of objective contradictions in thinking.

Although the history of paradox is so long, it was not until the beginning of this century that people really began to study the essence of paradox. Before this, paradox can only cause people's panic and anxiety; Since then, people have gradually realized that paradox also has its positive role. Especially since the 1960s and 1970s, there has been an upsurge in the study of paradox.