A paradox can be defined as an unacceptable conclusion derived by apparently acceptable reasoning from apparently acceptable premises. Unlike party puzzles or brain teasers, many paradoxes are serious in that they raise serious philosophical problems, and are associated with crises of thought and revolutionary advances. To grapple with them is not merely to engage in an intellectual game, but to come to grips with issues of real import. The second, revised edition of this intriguing book expands and updates the text to take account of new work on the subject. It provides a valuable and accessible introduction to a range of paradoxes and their possible solutions, with questions designed to engage the reader with the arguments and full bibliographical references to both classic and current literature on the topic.
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'An excellent introduction to logical reasoning ... Its clarity and its non-technicality, combined with the great rigour of its treatment, make this book a small gem.' Pascal Engel
Book Description
Paradoxes are fun. They are also serious: often they reveal hitherto unnoticed flaws in accepted theories, and their discovery can trigger far-reaching theoretical change. The second, revised edition of this intriguing book expands and updates the text to take account of new work on the subject.
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Zeno the Greek lived in Elea (a town in what is now southern Italy) in the fifth century B.C. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Zeno the Greek lived in Elea (a town in what is now southern Italy) in the fifth century B.C. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent survey of the most important logical paradoxes, which have troubled philosophers and logicians for millennia. It provides very clear accounts of the Liar, the Sorites and others. A good resource for students or those interested in the logical issues of paradoxes. I would not recommend it, however, to those who like paradoxes for the amusement and sleepless nights they cause. If you are intersted in how to solve them logically, read this (I'm not saying you'll find out though!) If you just want a good, entertaining book on paradoxes try something by Raymond Smullyan.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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4.5 out of 5 stars
10 reviews
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Knock your mind loose from your brain
12 Dec 2002
By John S. Ryan
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Philosophy begins in wonderment. Sometimes it ends there, too.
Good paradoxes aren't just for entertainment (although they _are_ vastly entertaining; check out any of Raymond Smullyan's books for proof of that assertion). Each of them opens a door to all sorts of fascinating issues of tremendous philosophical importance.
Mark Sainsbury's fine introduction, in its heavily revised second edition, is a set of keys to those doors. For example, his discussion of Zeno's famous paradoxes doesn't just inform the lay reader what they are; it explains why they're important even today: because they call into question whether the now-standard mathematical analyses of the paradoxes adequately capture our ordinary understanding of space. That is, the paradoxes can be resolved in the ideal space of mathematicians, but that doesn't _necessarily_ mean they can be resolved in the space in which we really live.
In difficulty, the exposition is about one notch higher than in William Poundstone's _Labyrinths of Reason_, so you may want to read Poundstone first if you're new to this subject altogether. But do get around to this one. It's a solid account, from a more or less "analytic" outlook (though that term probably suffers from all the "vagueness" problems discussed in Sainsbury's second chapter).
Sainsbury will also introduce some topics Poundstone doesn't cover -- notably, and perhaps most interestingly, Graham Priest's "dialethism" -- a logic in which, Priest claims, it's possible for some contradictions to be true[!]. Sainsbury doesn't agree but nevertheless concludes that he doesn't have a knockdown argument against it. (Be aware that Sainsbury's account has been criticized by other philosophers, including Priest. Follow up with Priest's own books if you get interested in this subject.)
Sainsbury also doesn't hesitate to offer his own resolutions of the paradoxes, but he warns the reader not to accept his resolutions blindly. In fact there are several about which I continue to disagree with him (not an unusual phenomenon when the subject is paradoxes), but he's changed my mind on a couple.
Overall, then, this is a well-written and cogently argued presentation, highly recommended to anyone interested in paradoxes and their relevance to philosophy.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Book
15 Feb 1998
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
If you want to learn or teach about Logical Paradoxes, this is the book you must raed. I have read many books on this topic, and to my opinion, this book is the best. The paradoxes and their solution (or dissolutions) are presented very clearly.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Top-notch brain calisthenics
28 July 2006
By Fred Adrissi
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I read this book and William Poundstone's "Labyrinths of Reason" at about the same time and found each to compliment the other very nicely. I strongly recommend reading Poundstone first, especially if you're like me and have very little or no formal training in logic. The two books cover much the same territory but in different ways. Poundstone is the better writer and does a wonderful job explaining the paradoxes and their interesting implications. Sainsbury is also a very good writer. His presentation is more matter-of-fact and rigorous though never overly technical. Sainsbury's chapters on the paradoxes of Zeno, Newcomb, Hempel, and Goodman are outstanding - extremely interesting, insightful, and fun. The going starts to get a bit rough in Chapter 5 with the Liar Paradox. Sainsbury digs into this paradox that at first seems simple but turns out to be perhaps the most difficult of all. This chapter occasionally threatens to degenerate into the sort of tedious detail and terminology that makes so many college logic courses so dreadfully awful but fortunately this never happens. The final chapter is also a challenge but one worth tackling: I suggest ibuprofen for the headache you'll get trying to understand why, to a logician, the three statements "This sentence if false" and "This sentence is not true" and "This sentence is untrue" are apparently three entirely different things! Even if it all doesn't stick the first time through, the great thing is that you'll find yourself thinking about things just a little bit differently.
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