Serendipities [electronic resource] : language & lunacy / Umberto Eco ; translated by William Weaver.

ISBN:

9780231500142

Title:

Author:

Eco, Umberto.

Personal Author:

Eco, Umberto.

Uniform Title:

Essays. English. Selections

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 129 pages).

Series:

Italian Academy lectures

Contents:

Force of falsity -- Languages in paradise -- From Marco Polo to Leibniz : stories of intellectual misunderstandings -- Language of the Austral Land -- Linguistics of Joseph de Maistre.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Language and languages -- Philosophy.

Intercultural communication.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

1998

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
401 21	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Umberto Eco unlocks the riddles of history in an exploration of the "linguistics of the lunatic," the stories told by scholars, scientists, poets, fanatics, and ordinary people to make sense of the world. By examining the "Force of the False," Eco reveals the layers of mistakes that have shaped human history and the serendipities that can spring from mistaken ideas. From Christopher Columbus's false assumptions about the size of the world to Marco Polo mistaking a rhinoceros for a unicorn, Eco tours the labyrinth of intellectual history, illuminating the ways in which we project the familiar onto the strange and the consequences of false knowledge. He ultimately shows the dangers we face do not lie in the rules we use to interpret other cultures but rather in our insistence on making such rules absolute.

Author Notes

Umberto Eco was born in Alessandria, Italy on January 5, 1932. He received a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Turin in 1954. His first book, Il Problema Estetico in San Tommaso, was an extension of his doctoral thesis on St. Thomas Aquinas and was published in 1956. His first novel, The Name of the Rose, was published in 1980 and won the Premio Strega and the Premio Anghiar awards in 1981. In 1986, it was adapted into a movie starring Sean Connery. His other works include Foucault's Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino, The Prague Cemetery, and Numero Zero. He also wrote children's books and more than 20 nonfiction books including Serendipities: Language and Lunacy. He taught philosophy and then semiotics at the University of Bologna. He also wrote weekly columns on popular culture and politics for L'Espresso. He died from cancer on February 19, 2016 at the age of 84.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Consider the platypus. With its famous molelike body carrying a beaver's tail and a duck's beak, the beast confounded the first Western scientists who studied it in 1798. Was it a mammal or a reptile? Did it lay eggs? Was it just a taxonomic hoax? The platypus eventually found its rightful place in the animal kingdom, but as Eco (Travels in Hyperreality, etc.) shows in these challenging essays, the questions it raised about language and perception still animate some sharply contested semiotic debates. Writing with his customary keenness of intellect, Eco ranges widely over metaphysical terrain, drawing on Aristotle, Heidegger and C.S. Peirce to inform his discussions. Revising aspects of Kant's philosophy in terms of cognitive studies, Eco ponders how we identify the things around us and argues that meaning in the world is ultimately contractual and negotiable. When Aztecs first saw horses ridden by Spanish conquistadors, for example, they used their previous knowledge to surmise that the invaders were riding deer. In another example, Eco investigates how we can recognize a Bach suite for solo cello, even when played by different soloists or transcribed for the recorder. Throughout, Eco gamely reconsiders his 1976 work, A Theory of Semiotics, over which many a gauntlet was testily thrown, and revisits other key moments in the history of semiotic research. This collection will certainly appeal to specialists. But Eco's ability to balance technical subject matter with broadly intelligible anecdotes and illustrations should make it valuable and pleasurable for anyone seeking a gallant introduction to the philosophy of language. (Nov.) FYI: Also in November Harvest will release Eco's Serendipities in paperback ($12, ISBN 0-15-600751-7) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

??LANGUAGE?? Eco, known for his intellectually stimulating best-sellers, most recently Island of the Day Before, is also an internationally known scholar of semantics. In his latest work, Eco ventures on an intellectual journey through time by studying the search for a perfect language. Although scholarly in nature, this slim but pithy volume offers an approachable introduction to the intellectual history of language and the foundation of linguistic study. Eco ventures into the work of Hellenic thinkers, medieval theologians, and more modern philosophers. From the search for the "original, perfect language" spoken before the Tower of Babel, the surprising premise arose (from Christian thinkers) that Hebrew was the original language and the one closest to perfection; it was refuted only by the more surprising theory that Chinese was the closest language to the original. The efforts to prove it led to all sorts of fortuitous discoveries, such as calculus. Fans of Eco's novels will not be left dissatisfied--his fictional players are still present: Templars, Illuminati, Jesuits, Theosophists, and Masons. They all have a part in this intriguing look at how the study of language can be full of surprises. --Michael Spinella

preface	p. vii
Serendipities	p. 0
1 The Force of Falsity	p. 1
2 Languages in Paradise	p. 23
3 From Marco Polo to Leibniz Stories of Intellectual Misunderstandings	p. 53
4 The Language of the Austral Land	p. 75
5 The Linguistics of Joseph de Maistre	p. 95
Notes	p. 115
Index	p. 119

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Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

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