Summary
Title: A Brief History of the Paradox: Philosophy and the Labyrinths of the Mind
Author: Roy Sorensen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195159039
Pro:
• Interesting lens through which the history and work of philosophy can be viewed
• Entertaining read for both professional and arm-chair philosophers
Con:
• None
Description:
• Exploration of the nature of paradoxes in philosophical thought
• Argues that paradoxes provide an important insight on how philosophy works
• Explains how the process of working out paradoxes is key to philosophy
Book Review
Paradoxes are effective tools for demonstrating that a commonly assumed idea does not necessarily deserve our unquestioning adherence. This process is similar to the use of reductio ad absurdum, which involves taking some premise to a logical conclusion that is shown to be absurd. Because of this, paradoxes can tell us a great deal about philosophy - a subject which is defined far more by its questions than by any of its answers.
That is why Roy Sorensen decided to use paradoxes as the lens through which he could explain the history and topics of philosophy. In A Brief History of the Paradox: Philosophy and the Labyrinths of the Mind, Sorensen, a professor of philosophy at Dartmouth, says that paradoxes are the "atoms of philosophy because they constitute the basic points of departure for disciplined speculation."
Paradoxes are important to philosophy because paradoxes reveal (or at least purport to reveal) basic problems in our conceptual schemes and in how we view the world. That, in turn, is just the sort of thing that philosophers love to deal with. Philosophers will wrestle with a paradox for years and years - sometimes they are successful and sometimes not, but clever people keep coming up with new paradoxes, thus ensuring that future philosophers won't be short of interesting work.
A Brief History of the Paradox: Philosophy and the Labyrinths of the Mind, by Roy Sorensen
Sorensen's book is both topical and historical in its presentation, thus combining two common means for presenting philosophy into one. Over the course of twenty-four chapters, Sorensen pairs twenty-four philosophers with a major paradox each - either a paradox created by or closely associated with the philosopher. This allows Sorensen to provide detailed insights into both the philosophers and the paradoxes, placing a human face on the strategies used to develop and solve these conceptual puzzles.
