I Think, Therefore I Laugh

by John Allen Paulos

Wittgenstein once remarked that 'a serious and good philosophical work could be written that consisted entirely of jokes'. Inspired by this idea, John Allen Paulos shows how conceptual humour and analytic philosophy resonate at a very deep level. Both evince a keen concern for language and its (mis)interpretations; both require a free intelligence in a relatively open society, as well as a sceptical tendency towards debunking; and both are quintessentially human. "I Think, Therefore I Laugh" is packed with jokes, stories, parables, puzzles and anecdotes, all of which relate in one way or another to various philosophical problems, leading to some unexpected insights.

John Allen Paulos is professor of mathematics at Temple University and has long had an interest in analystic philosophy and its puzzles. He is the bestselling author of INNUMERACY, BEYOND NUMERACY, A MATEHEMATICIAN READS THE NEWSPAPER and ONCE UPON A NUMBER, all published by Penguin. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two children.