An Anthropology of Puzzles: The Role of Puzzles in the Origins and Evolution of Mind and Culture

Description

An Anthropology of Puzzles argues that the human brain is a 'puzzling organ' which allows humans to literally solve their own problems of existence through puzzle format. Noting the presence of puzzles everywhere in everyday life, Marcel Danesi looks at puzzles in society since the dawn of history, showing how their presence has guided large sections of human history, from discoveries in mathematics to disquisitions in philosophy. Danesi examines the cognitive processes that are involved in puzzle making and solving, and connects them to the actual physical manifestations of classic puzzles. Building on a concept of puzzles as based on Jungian archetypes, such as the river crossing image, the path metaphor, and the journey, Danesi suggests this could be one way to understand the public fascination with puzzles. As well as drawing on underlying mental archetypes, the act of solving puzzles also provides an outlet to move beyond biological evolution, and Danesi shows that puzzles could be the product of the same basic neural mechanism that produces language and culture. Finally, Danesi explores how understanding puzzles can be a new way of understanding our human culture. Cover page ......Page 1 Halftitle page ......Page 2 Series page ......Page 3 Title page ......Page 4 Copyright page ......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Figures......Page 8 Tables......Page 10 Preface......Page 11 Acknowledgments......Page 13 1 Puzzles in Mind and History......Page 14 Riddles, puzzles, and games......Page 15 Historical sketch......Page 24 Main puzzle types......Page 34 Solving puzzles......Page 35 Puzzle archetypes......Page 39 Puzzles and human intelligence......Page 44 2 Riddles......Page 46 Riddles as oral tradition......Page 48 Solving riddles......Page 54 Riddles and metaphor......Page 57 Riddles and the origins of culture......Page 61 3 Word Games......Page 66 Anagrams and acrostics......Page 67 Cryptograms......Page 73 Word squares, word searches, crosswords, and doublets......Page 84 The ludic nature of language......Page 93 4 Visual Puzzles......Page 96 Optical illusions......Page 97 Vanishing tricks......Page 105 Rebuses......Page 110 Geometric puzzles......Page 112 The tangram, the jigsaw, and the golden ratio......Page 116 Mazes......Page 120 Visual imaging......Page 123 5 Puzzles in Mathematics......Page 128 The Ahmes papyrus......Page 130 The magic square......Page 132 Alcuin’s propositiones......Page 140 Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci......Page 143 Recreational mathematics......Page 146 Mathematical method......Page 154 Puzzle memes......Page 157 6 Puzzles and Logic......Page 164 The nature of logic......Page 166 The Monty Hall problem......Page 173 Paradoxes and cognition......Page 175 Logic deconstructed......Page 179 Sudoku......Page 184 Logic and imagination......Page 186 7 Puzzles and Human Intelligence......Page 188 Homo ludens......Page 189 Games of chance......Page 195 Human intelligence......Page 197 Mind and culture......Page 202 Concluding remarks......Page 207 References......Page 212 Index......Page 226