It's been puzzling great thinkers for two thousand years but now a University philosophy professor has proposed a novel solution to the famous ancient riddle known as the Sorites paradox.

Professor Laurence Goldstein's solution to the paradox connects with research on a neural mechanism structurally identical to a process devised as part of the World War Two Bletchley Park code-breaking operation.

Professor Goldstein's solution to the Sorites paradox is featured in the January issue of Analysis, published by Oxford University Press.

He said: 'There are many versions of the paradox. One involves taking a series of cards. The first is painted pillar box red. The next card, which looks exactly the same colour as the first, must also be red. A third that looks exactly like the second must also be red, and so on.

‘However, this series of cards has the first card red and the last orange, and there is no perceptible difference between the colour of any card and that of its immediate neighbours. There seems to be nowhere in the series of cards where a transition occurs between one card being red and its neighbour being anything other than red. So the last card in the series should be red. But it isn't - it's orange. We are faced therefore with a paradox.

Professor Goldstein's proposed solution to this paradox breaks the problem into two parts: the first part draws on experimental work and connects with research on choice-making neural mechanisms; the second argues that some traditional reasoning about the Sorites is marred by a fundamental error, or fallacy.

He said: 'The history of paradox solutions is a history of failure, so a rational theorist must expect refutation. But, in the absence of a refutation to date, one can enjoy feeling cautiously optimistic. If the first part of the theory is correct, then the mathematical description of the relevant neural mechanism reveals its function to be structurally identical to that of the Banburismus process devised by Alan Turing as part of the Bletchley Park code breaking effort in World War II.