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A Budget of Paradoxes Paperback – April 15, 2007

by Augustus de Morgan (Author)

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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).

A Budget of Paradoxes

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Product Details

Paperback: 808 pages
Publisher: Cosimo Classics (April 15, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602063206
ISBN-13: 978-1602063204
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.6 x 9.2 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: #4,200,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2792 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > History
- #138897 in Books > History > World

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

Review of "A Budget of Paradoxes"

By J. S. Hazelton on July 29, 2007

Format: 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.Read more ›

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

Bibiographical information

By Dennis Des Chene on October 6, 2009

Format: 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.

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