I think, therefore I laugh : the flip side of philosophy / John Allen Paulos.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Paulos, John Allen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Logic.

Philosophy--Humor.

Philosophy.

Genre:

Humor.

Physical Description:

x, 178 pages ; 18 cm

Edition:

[Second edition].

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2000]

Summary:

Paulos uses jokes, stories, parables, and anecdotes to elucidate difficult concepts, in this case, some of the fundamental problems in modern philosophy.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Two Unlikely Pairs of Men 1

Wittgenstein and Carroll 4

Groucho Meets Russell 8

Chapter 2 Logic 13

Either-Or 14

You Bet Your Life 20

Sillygisms 23

The Titl of This Section Contains Three Erors 30

Russell's Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Rubin 35

Language and Metalanguage: Do You Get It? 40

Meaning, Reference, and Dora Black's First Husband 48

Analytic vs. Synthetic, Boole vs. Boyle, and Mathematics vs. Cookery 52

Chapter 3 Science 63

Induction, Causality, and Hume's Eggs 64

The Tortoise Came First? 71

Of Birds and Strange Colors 76

Truths, Half-Truths, and Statistics 83

Duhem, Poincare, and the Poconos-Catskill Diet 89

Reductionism, Fallibilism, and Opportunism 95

Randomness and the Berry Task 102

Determinism and Smart Computers 110

Bell's Inequality and Weirdness 114

On Assumptions 124

Chapter 4 People 131

Context, Complexity, and Artificial Intelligence 132

Why Did He Just Now Touch His Head? 139

Arrow, Prisoners, and Compromise 150.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 168-171) and index.

ISBN:

0231119143

0231119151

OCLC:

41482337