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Insurmountable Simplicities: Thirty-Nine Philosophical Conundrums Paperback – March 3, 2008

by Roberto Casati (Author), Achille Varzi (Author, Translator)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
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"Perhaps not all the stories that follow are true. They could, however, be true, and the Reader is invited to ponder this."

So begins Insurmountable Simplicities, Roberto Casati and Achille Varzi's colorful incarnation of the many philosophical conundrums that hide in the wrinkles of everyday life. Why do mirrors seem to invert left and right but not up and down? How do we know whether strawberries taste the same for everyone? Where is it written that we must observe the law, and if it is not written, why should we observe it? What if we could swap brains-or the rest of our bodies?

Insurmountable Simplicities is filled with stories, dialogues, and epistolary exchanges that cover a range of themes-such as personal identity, causality and responsibility, fortune, the nature of things, the paradoxes of time and space, the interface between logic and language-in captivating and inventive ways.

Clear, concise, and intellectually engaging, this internationally acclaimed book brilliantly demonstrates that the beauty of philosophy resides in its thorough engagement with the simplicities of the world, insurmountable as they might initially appear.
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  1. Print length
    144 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Columbia University Press
  4. Publication date
    March 3, 2008
  5. Dimensions
    5.29 x 0.42 x 8.04 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0231137230
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0231137232
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Bite-sized bits of thought-provoking philosophy are cunningly explored in this little book of brainteasers. ― Publishers Weekly

The authors creatively weave...cleverly written stories. Highly recommended. ― Library Journal

An excellent and mentally stimulating introduction to a wide variety of difficult and deep questions. ― Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Roberto Casati is research director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris. He is the author of The Shadow Club and (with Achille Varzi) Parts and Places: The Structures of Spatial Representation and Holes and Other Superficialities.

Achille Varzi is professor of philosophy at Columbia University. In addition to the books coauthored with Casati, he is the author of several volumes, including An Essay in Universal Semantics and Theory and Problems of Logic.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Columbia University Press (March 3, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0231137230
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0231137232
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.29 x 0.42 x 8.04 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

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Roberto Casati

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4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
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Top reviews from the United States

DrAwkward
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent collection of short philosophical vignettes
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2021
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Similar to Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams, this is a collection of short vignettes, each highlighting a philosophical dilemma or paradox. Even though the chapters are bite-sized, the ideas make for great rumination and an excellent spark for discussions. Wish there were more books like these!
2 people found this helpful
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Marissa DeLeon
5.0 out of 5 stars Quickly Received
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2020
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A. J. Sutter
5.0 out of 5 stars Alternative view of what we take for granted
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2019
This is a very charming collection of vignettes, each featuring a skew way of looking at the familiar. I wouldn't call these "brainteasers," in that they aren't puzzles with a particular solution that one can find at the back of the book. Rather, each vignette is a vehicle for introducing problems in philosophy, such as metaphysics, ontology, causation, probability or logic. In most cases, the goal is to open the reader's curiosity, rather than to test reasoning ability. Some standout pieces for me were the dialogues about the "reverse lottery" and modern scuplture, and some correspondence from various amoebas. The acknowledgments at the back of the book mention various philosophers whose work inspired some of the vignettes, and the texts themselves drop a few names, too -- such as Wittgenstein's, a couple of times.

The authors have collaborated before, such as on a more formal philosophical work analyzing the relationship of parts to wholes (a field known as mereology), and a delightful semi-popular work on the nature of holes. The pieces in this book began life as columns for an Italian newspaper. They have been translated into English, along with transposition of some cultural references to a more American context, by one of the authors, rather than a professional translator. This occasionally gives a certain quaintness to the translation, but that's OK: it suits the like-our-world-but-slighly-off quality of many of the situations. In the coming term I'm teaching a college course on logic and ethics that is only tangential to the topics of these pieces; a new puzzle the book poses is how to squeeze in some of this material anyway, since I'm pretty confident my students will enjoy it.
4 people found this helpful
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