The Puzzle Instinct: The Meaning of Puzzles in Human Life

Передняя обложка
Indiana University Press, 19 июн. 2002 г. - Всего страниц: 288

One of the most famous anagrams of all time was constructed in the Middle Ages. The unknown author contrived it as a Latin dialogue between Pilate and Jesus. Jesus' answer to Pilate's question "What is truth" is phrased as an ingenious anagram of the letters of that very question: Pilate: Quid est veritas? ("What is truth?") Jesus: Est virqui adest. ("It is the man before you.")

The origin of anagrams is shrouded in mystery. One thing is clear, however -- in the ancient world, they were thought to contain hidden messages from the gods. Legend has it that even Alexander the Great (356--323 b.c.) believed in their prophetic power.
-- from Chapter Two

The most obvious explanation for the popularity of puzzles is that they provide a form of constructive entertainment. But in The Puzzle Instinct Marcel Danesi contends that the fascination with puzzles throughout the ages suggests something much more profound. Puzzles serve a deeply embedded need in people to make sense of things. Emerging at the same time in human history as myth, magic, and the occult arts, the puzzle instinct, he claims, led to discoveries in mathematics and science, as well as revolutions in philosophical thought.

Puzzles fill an existential void by providing "small-scale experiences of the large-scale questions that Life poses. The puzzle instinct is, arguably, as intrinsic to human nature as is humor, language, art, music, and all the other creative faculties that distinguish humanity from all other species."

Результаты поиска по книге

 

Избранные страницы

Содержание

Puzzling Language
37
3236
51
Rebuses
59
The JanusFaced Nature of Language
68
Puzzling Pictures
89
Puzzling Logic
115
Solutions
236
Bibliography and General Reading List
254
Index
265
Авторские права

Другие издания - Просмотреть все

The Puzzle Instinct: The Meaning of Puzzles in Human Life
Marcel Danesi
Ограниченный просмотр - 2004
The Puzzle Instinct: The Meaning of Puzzles in Human Life
Marcel Danesi
Просмотр фрагмента - 2002

Часто встречающиеся слова и выражения

5-pint Jar accurate reckoning acrostic Ahmes algebraic anagrams ancient answer ball Bud didn't kill Caesar ciphers called cards carry-over century chapter chess circle coins column contains crossword cryptograms cube deductive devised diagonally digits disc Dover draw Dudeney equal equation example fact famous Fermat's Fibonacci Figure four genre geometry golden ratio Greek Henry Dudeney hour hand Hovanec human ingenious insight thinking integers invented Jack kill Mack known labyrinth language letters Lewis Carroll logic Loyd magic square Martin Gardner mathematical mathematician maze means Mersenne prime move mystery original pair paradoxes Pascal's triangle paths pattern philosopher pieces polyominoes popular prime problem produce puzzle instinct puzzle-making Puzzleland puzzlists Pythagorean Pythagorean Theorem Raymond Smullyan readers Recreations Rhind Papyrus riddles Sainz Sam Loyd simple solution solve solver statement symbols tangram Theorem tion triangle Truth Value Tug are friends word York

Популярные отрывки

Стр. 35 - Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.
Встречается в книгах (1104) с 1710 по 2008
Стр. 8 - As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives; Each wife had seven sacks, Each sack had seven cats, Each cat had seven kits; Kits, cats, sacks and wives, How many were going to St. Ives?
Встречается в книгах (360) с 1841 по 2008
Стр. 141 - Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.
Встречается в книгах (489) с 1876 по 2008
Стр. 9 - Pythagoras' theorem states that the square of the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides.
Встречается в книгах (510) с 1801 по 2007
Стр. 232 - Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,
Встречается в книгах (805) с 1898 по 2009
Стр. 174 - And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation...
Встречается в книгах (160) с 1805 по 2007
Стр. 137 - ... drawing a card from a pack containing twenty-five red cards and a black one, or from a pack containing twenty-five black cards and a red one, and if the drawing of a red card were destined to transport him to eternal felicity, and that of a black one to consign him to everlasting woe, it would be folly to deny that he ought to prefer the pack containing the larger portion of red cards, although, from the nature of the risk, it could not be repeated.
Встречается в книгах (30) с 1895 по 2005
Стр. 51 - The whole visible universe is but a store-house of images and signs to which the imagination will give a relative place and value; it is a sort of pasture which the imagination must digest and transform.
Встречается в книгах (42) с 1956 по 2007
Стр. 254 - GAMES, ANCIENT AND ORIENTAL, AND How TO PLAY THEM. Being the Games of the Ancient Egyptians, the Hiera Gramme of the Greeks, the Ludus Latrunculorum of the Romans, and the Oriental Games of Chess, Draughts, Backgammon, and Magic Squares.
Встречается в книгах (85) с 1775 по 2008

Ссылки на эту книгу

Об авторе (2002)

Marcel Danesi is Professor of Semiotics and Anthropology at the University of Toronto and Director of the Program in Semiotics and Communication Theory. His books include Increase Your Puzzle IQ and Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things: An Introduction to Semiotics. He lives in Toronto.

Библиографические данные

НазваниеThe Puzzle Instinct: The Meaning of Puzzles in Human Life
The Puzzle Instinct
АвторMarcel Danesi
ИздательIndiana University Press, 2002
ISBN0253109191, 9780253109194
Количество страницВсего страниц: 288
  
Экспорт цитатыBiBTeX EndNote RefMan