Spandrels of Truth

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 12:37AM

Whoever thought that teaching in three subjects, chairing one committee, participating in another one with a honking big project to keep on the rails for the next few months, supervsing n research students (for a seriously large value of ’n’) and trying to keep your research ticking over would keep you busy with work? I did think that. But now I know it by acquaintance, and not merely by dispassionate theoretical reflection.

Anyway, I’m not here to moan. I’m here to make you an offer. My friend, colleague, co-author (more like partner in crime) Jc Beall has gone and written another book Spandrels of Truth. (He’s one of these ridiculously prolific authors.) Anyway, it’s a cracker of a read, on the view that if we take seriously the idea that to say that <p> is true is no more and no less than to say that p, then the inconsistencies like the liar paradox are side-effects of the ‘design’ decisions, just like spandrels in architecture, and are neither to be worried about nor gotten rid of: instead, they’re to be lived with. Jc’s job is to convince us all of this by supplying us a paraconsistent logic and enough semantic machinery to show that living with them is not going to make the whole building fall down. I think he does a great job, and that this book is required reading for anyone thinking about theories of truth, paradoxes and stuff like that.

Thankfully, the required reading is not too expensive. Use this form for your ordering, and Oxford University Press will shave 20% off the price. Go buy it. Help Jc rocket up the best-seller lists. But be quick. The 20% discount lasts only until June 11, 2009.