A Budget of Paradoxes [Paperback]

Augustus De Morgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2007

A Budget of Paradoxes, originally published in 1915, is mathematician Augustus De Morgan's most accessible and entertaining work. Well-known for his wit, De Morgan takes aim at those people he calls "paradoxers," which in modern terms would most closely resemble crackpots. Paradoxers, however, are not crazy, necessarily-rather, they hold views wildly outside the accepted sphere. If you believed the world was round when everyone else knew that it was flat, you would be a paradoxer. In this book, De Morgan reviews a number of books from his own library written by such "crackpots" who claim to have solved a great many of the puzzles of mathematics and science, including squaring a circle, creating perpetual motion, and overcoming gravity. Each is thoroughly put in his place in ways both entertaining and informative to readers. Skeptics, students of science, and anyone who likes pondering a puzzle will find this book a delightful read. British mathematician AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN (1806-1871) invented the term mathematical induction. Among his many published works is Trigonometry and Double Algebra (1849).

Product Details

• Paperback: 808 pages
• Publisher: Cosimo Classics (April 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602063206
• ISBN-13: 978-1602063204
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,881,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review of "A Budget of Paradoxes", July 29, 2007

By 

J. S. Hazelton - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Budget of Paradoxes (Paperback)

I first ran across this book in a reference in one of Martin Gardiner's books, and ordered it knowing little about it.

Augustus de Morgan was an English mathematician who lived from 1806-1871. He uses the term "paradox" to mean a person who has views or theories contrary to the established system, in a variety of fields, including mathematics, the sciences in general, religion, politics, etc.

This book is a single paperback book containing both Volumes 1 and 2. This was originally published as two volumes in 1915. However, the material all dates from the 1860's and earlier, and Volume 1 was apparently published in that time.

This book is about people as revealed in their books and letters. In most or all cases, these were books or pamphlets or letters which were in de Morgan's collection. They are taken in chronological order, meaning the subject will jump from geometry to atomic theory to religion and back again. Some are described in a few sentences or paragraphs, some in a page or two, and some run on for multiple pages.

One of the more common themes is the squaring of the circle or the related question of the calculation of pi. It might be assumed that de Morgan would go into detail about the methods used, the errors introduced, refutation of the false ideas, etc. But this is a book mainly about people, and so you'll find a discussion of this or that person, and generally what their ideas were, but in most cases, not a detailed analysis of their work or their errors.

A general understanding of mathematical and scientific principles is helpful when reading the work, although, as noted, it is not a book of math theorems. Fortunately, most of the French and Latin quotations have been translated by the editors.

The value of the work seems to me to be threefold. First, it reviews a great number of works and people, many of which were obscure in their own day, and many of which would be impossible to find today. Secondly, it serves as a window into the 19th century (and earlier) world of math and science, the ways of thinking, and the relationships between different groups. Thirdly, de Morgan does have occasional real gems of humor or wording in his work, and what might be otherwise very dry writing is made considerably more interesting by his sense of humor.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bibiographical information, October 6, 2009

By 

Dennis Des Chene "DDC" (Saint Louis, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Budget of Paradoxes (Paperback)

The first edition is London: Longmans, Green, 1872. The second is from Open Court, 1915 with a preface by David Eugene Smith. The edition listed here is a mutilated version of 1915 (I think) minus the two prefaces of that edition (by Sophia de Morgan and Smith). Save your money and buy the Dover reprint of 1954, which has a nice preface by Ernst Nagel.