In the five essays in Serendipities, Eco explores some related serendipitous episodes in the history of linguistics as always, his characteristic blend of playfulness and erudition is bound to be irresistible to any lover of language. Although misconceived, the project by chance led to advances in mathematical logic, artificial intelligence, and even world peace-the goal of artificial languages like Esperanto and the unfortunately named Volapük. In linguistics, as in the other sciences, Eco explains, there are serendipities: "Even the most lunatic experiments can produce strange side effects, stimulating research that proves perhaps less amusing but scientifically more serious." In his earlier book The Search for the Perfect Language, for example, he discussed the project of discovering the language spoken before the collapse of the Tower of Babel. The multitalented Umberto Eco-novelist, critic, and literary theorist-turns his attention to the history of linguistics. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
With erudition, anecdotes, and scholarly rigor, this new collection of essays is sure to entertain and enlighten any reader with a passion for the curious history of languages and ideas. Uncovering layers of mistakes that have shaped human history, Eco offers with wit and clarity such instances as Columbus's voyage to the New World, the fictions that grew around the Rosicrucians and Knights Templar, and the linguistic endeavors to recreate the language of Babel, to show how serendipities can evolve out of mistakes. From Leibniz's belief that the I Ching illustrated the principles of calculus to Marco Polo's mistaking a rhinoceros for a unicorn, Umberto Eco offers a dazzling tour of intellectual history, illuminating the ways in which we project the familiar onto the strange to make sense of the world. Serendipities is a careful unraveling of the fabulous and the false, a brilliant exposition of how unanticipated truths often spring from false ideas.
0 kommentar(er)
