A Budget of Paradoxes

by Augustus De Morgan

Series:A Budget of Paradoxes (1 & 2)

Description

An important figure in the development of modern mathematical logic and abstract algebra, Augustus De Morgan (1806-71) was also a witty writer who made a hobby of collecting evidence of paradoxical and illogical thinking from historical sources as well as contemporary pamphlets and periodicals. Based on articles that had appeared in The Athenaeum during his lifetime, this work was edited by his widow and published in book form in 1872. It parades all varieties of crackpot, from show more circle-squarers to inventors of perpetual motion machines, all for the reader's entertainment and education. Filled with anecdotes, personal opinions and 'squibs' of every kind, the book remains enjoyable reading for those who are amused rather than appalled by the human condition. Also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection are the Memoir of Augustus De Morgan (1882), prepared by his wife, and his ambitious Formal Logic (1847). show less

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gmenchen 55 reviews

A long catalog of books where the authors were wrong ( gravitation does not exist, the exact value of pi is 3 and one eighth, the moon has nothing to do with tides) or, less commonly, the author was so far ahead of their time that they were thought wrong. De Morgan also produced a more conventional bibliography - Arithmetical Books. Budget of Paradoxes is very entertaining.

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