2) Vicious Circles and Infinity: An Anthology of Paradoxes, by Patrick Hughes and George Brecht
A very slim Penguin (75 pages) found while sorting the books at the weekend. Goes through the standard paradoxes – the class of all classes that do not include themselves, Zeno, Cantor on infinity, the unexpected hanging, etc, and many variations. Slightly confusing layout in that every page has a vaguely relevant quotation at both top and bottom, which breaks up the main text rather abruptly. Mostly of interest to teenage proto-geeks, but I laughed out loud when Russell, worrying about the class of all classes that do not include themselves, confides his concerns to Whitehead, who ripostes, “never glad confident morning again!” You bastard, Whitehead, is the thought which probably went through Russell’s mind.
The book did help me crystallise a serious point too. Logic and science are powerful tools for exploring and explaining the natural and human worlds. But as this book reminds us, they are necessarily incomplete, and sometimes contradictory; just like any other system of thought ever developed by humans. This is why I take Richard Dawkins’ views on biology more seriously than his views on religion.
However, a significant change is that the LibDem/Tory coalition are no longer going to wave through Murdoch’s bid to take over Sky, or abolish the media regulator Ofcom (it remains to be seen whether they will continue their war of attrition against the BBC, but at least it will be scrutinised).
This is significant for two reasons. Firstly of course as an intrinsic good – Murdoch told them to get rid of Ofcom because he saw it as a limiting factor, and its continuing existence is a good in itself.
But secondly, and I think more significantly, the blatant trading of British media opportunity for political support just became much harder. People got wiser.
Compared to this the appetite for titillation – though dreary – is unimportant. The ‘sins’ of the poor (we like to read about sex) are criticised while the sins of the rich (literal criminal conspiracy) are hand-waved away.