Book Review ~~ The Veil of Ignorance ~~

Today I read “The Veil of Ignorance,” a philosophical puzzle from “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten,” by Julian Baggini. I thought that the idea of the puzzle was extremely intriguing, but ultimately impractical. Basically, ten humans are going to settle on Mars, but they don’t know if extreme strength, intellect, or a mixture will be necessary to survive, and must decide if they want to give the most rations to those who need it most, or to those who do the most. This is supposed to be a microcosm of what might happen on Earth if people were to decide how to divide the luxuries and whether to help less privileged members of the world in developing countries—except that people on Earth already know what their talents are, and they’ll only make the same decisions as they would otherwise because there isn’t really a veil of ignorance. As a result, it can be regarded as either an extremely useful or useless thought experiment. Personally, I think that it’s not very useful, because almost no one would be impartial in their decision-making instead of simply choosing whatever would benefit them most (or, if they were altruistic to a degree, still the same way they would otherwise), but the thought experiment is still an interesting and intriguing idea, and I wonder how people would really choose if, for example, the hypothetical situation was suggested to them. Would they gamble on being able to succeed, awarding the most luxuries to those who contributed the most, or be more cautious and divvy up the luxuries evenly? Although I regard the puzzle as not very useful, I would still recommend this puzzle to anyone who enjoyed other puzzles from the same book, simply likes philosophy, or just wants an interesting puzzle to occupy their time and rate it 9.5/10.

Book Review ~~ Total Lack of Recall ~~

Total Lack of Recall is another philosophical puzzle in “The Pig that Wants To Be Eaten”, by Julian Baggini. This particular puzzle is about a man who remembers being Arnold Conan, but used to be Alan Wood. Wood was an unpleasant man who got into trouble, and was given the option to have his memory erased and replaced with a set of made-up memories. He agreed, so Conan/Wood remembers being Conan. However, he was Wood for the many years before his memories were replaced, so who is he? He was born Alan Wood, so it seems that he is, in fact, Alan Wood, but he remembers being Arnold Conan. Is it the true past that is more important, or does his current personality and set of memories matter most? I really enjoyed thinking about the identity crisis the puzzle presented, but I only confused myself more as I continued to think. If it is his thoughts and beliefs that matter most, then he is Conan, but since his former memory could just as easily be replaced, does it matter? This was an intriguing philosophical puzzle, and I recommend it to anyone interested in philosophy, logic, or looking for an interesting brain teaser. I would rate it 9.7/10.

Book Review ~~ The Nightmare Scenario ~~

The Nightmare Scenario is another philosophical puzzle from “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten,” by Julian Baggini. Again, this puzzle questions humans’ rationality. It suggests that we are dreaming, but that we never wake up. If we did, we might think, How absurd my dream was! And, in fact, even when we did “wake up”, it might simply be another dream, as false awakenings are perfectly plausible. Of course, the natural reply is that everything makes sense, and since we remember the past, we can’t be dreaming, as dreams don’t involve pasts. However, it is possible that, in the dream, we are constructing pasts for ourselves so that we can make sense of the dream while we are in it, and when we wake up, we will laugh at its absurdity. Once, I dreamed that I was in a rainbow-colored forest, with a vividly hued jaguar chasing me. Afterwards, I knew that it was false, but during the dream, the events I experienced seemed perfectly reasonable. I really enjoyed this puzzle because, again, it is impossible to question something using a faulty tool — in this case, rationality. I would recommend it to anyone interested in philosophy, rationality, dreams, or simply looking for a brain teaser to occupy their time, and rate it 9.7/10.

Book Review ~~ The Evil Demon ~~

Today I read The Evil Demon, which is the first of a hundred philosophical puzzles in “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten,” by Julian Baggini. The book is a lovely compilation of various philosophical puzzles, so I’ll probably review a variety of them. The Evil Demon suggests that a demon is tricking us into thinking that, say, one plus three is four, when, in truth, one plus three is nine. It seems “obvious” that one plus three does, in fact, equal four, but how can we prove that? It is our ability to think rationally that is doubted, so we cannot rationalize an argument to show that our rationality can be trusted, because that would be assuming that we are rational to reach the conclusion that we are rational. The most interesting part about the puzzle was that it questioned the premise that must always be used to reach any sort of conclusion — that our thinking is rational and correct. After all, to a person under hypnosis, it’s perfectly reasonable to count “one, two, three, five . . .” without realizing that she missed saying four, so assuming that a demon is using a similar tool, we cannot trust our rationality. I really enjoyed the puzzle that this suggestion presented and would rate this puzzle 9.8/10. I recommend it to anyone interested in philosophy or simply looking for an interesting brain teaser to puzzle over for days.