Human beings are born with an "instinct for puzzles" that betrays a larger search for meaning to life. The puzzle instinct is as intrinsic to human nature as is language, humour, art, music and the other creative faculties that distinguish humanity from all other species Why are humans fascinated by puzzles? Puzzle-addict and renowned communication theorist Marcel Danesi takes readers on an exploration of the philosophical implications of the puzzle instinct. Puzzles are as old as humanity and the human instinct for puzzles betrays the larger perpetual search for meaning to life. Danesi not only has included many in this book to puzzle over, he explores why we like to puzzle over them as well. Among the smaller puzzles in this book are the solutions to some much larger puzzles: What is the necessary raison d'etre that puzzles serve, why did they emerge at the same time in history as myth, magic and the occult arts, and why can't we put them down.
Table of Contents:
Preface
1. Why Puzzles?
2. Puzzling Language: Riddles, Anagrams, and Other Verbal Perplexities
3. Puzzling Pictures: Optical Illusions, Mazes, and Other Visual Mind-Bogglers
4. Puzzling Logic: Deductions, Paradoxes, and Other Forms of Mind Play
5. Puzzling Numbers: Magic Squares, Cryptarithms, and Other Mathematical Recreations
6. Puzzling Games: Chess, Checkers, and Other Games
7. The Puzzle of Life
Solutions
Bibliography and General Reading List
Index
About the Author :
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.
Review :
"Danesi, a professor of semiotics and anthropology (Univ. of Toronto), explores why puzzles, having arisen in earliest human history at the same time as mystery cults, are an intrinsic part of human life. Will Shortz, crossword puzzle editor of the New York Times, has suggested enigmatology as the study of the relationship between puzzles and culture. This book, which explores the puzzle genres that have survived over the years, is a contribution to that rubric. After first asking the question Why puzzles? (and developing several possible answers, among which is that they provide comic relief from unanswerable larger questions), Danesi devotes chapters to each of several types of puzzle. These include language puzzles (e.g., riddles and anagrams); pictures (e.g., optical illusions and mazes); logic (e.g., deductions and paradoxes); numbers (e.g., mathematical recreations); and games (e.g., chess). A final chapter synopsizes the discussion. A detailed list of references is included, as are solutions to the specific puzzles posed. The book is well written, has no mathematical prerequisites, and is quite suitable for a general audience as well as lower- and upper-division undergraduates.December 2002"—D. Robbins, Trinity College (CT)
