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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Caveat Emptor, Aug 9 2003
By A Customer
Please note: This book is approximately 75% paraphrased from Eco's "The Search for the Perfect Language," which contains a more thorough treatment of the material that the two books share. The material that is new in this book is interesting, making the read worthwhile for the dedicated reader who has already enjoyed "The Search..". For the casual reader, "Serendipities" is much shorter and more accessible than "The Search for the Perfect Language", making it a suitable alternative or possibly an introduction to the longer text. However, if you take offense at paying to read the same information twice, simply do not purchase both books. Enjoy!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Why we should stay on the Eco high-horse, April 27 2004
I have to confess that I haven't read this book as of yet. In fact I pretty much know exactly what his essays are going to conclude with, given the fact that I've read and am well acquainted with both his academic works, as well as his novels, satire etc. and also those elements he uses in his works which require a polymathic worldview in order to even appreciate some of their subtlety (e.g. Why was William of Baskerville in "The Name of the Rose" a "nominalist" or why is the title of "Foucault Pendulum" a reference to the French Deconstuctionist Michel Foucault and not the physicist, or why is the monk at the end of "The Island of the Day Before" not an illusion at all or ..."
I'm purchasing the book "sight unseen" and given that it's Eco he's getting five stars immediately.
As for my reasons in writing this review it's pretty much revealed by my title. As for answers to to my examples; I've listed them below:"The Name of the Rose":William of Baskerville is a nominalist because he's a member of that philosophical school best represented by William of Oakham(Occam's Razor). That school of thought, arose as a result of conflicts between certain excesses of the Scholastics. Nominalism is considered to be one of the germinal thoughts which led to the development of the "Scientific Method" "Foucault's Pendulum": The complete subtext of this book includes the underlying theme of "conspiracy theory." The reason that's important is that Eco believes one of those things which give rise to "conspiracy theories" is "unlimited-semiosis". Eco faults Michel Foucault and his excesses such as is embodied in "deconstructionalism" as an example of one of the dangers of "unlimited semiosis." "The Island of the Day Before." The mad monk isn't an illusion. It's actually the protaganist whose not just a buffoon, but has actually gone mad(of course he's not an illusion either). The mad monk embraces Tycho Brahe's cosmology of the solar system. Unless one understands the "history of science" in this particular historic milieu, or the reasons why Tycho Brahe came up with his cosmology(which seems truly bizarre to the modern mind) you can't discern whether the monk is real or not. Hint: The monk embraced Aristotelian Physics. Tycho Brahe's cosmology resolved the contradiction which existed between that and Galileo's observations. One must remember this was prior to Isaac Newton's "Principia" and before these issues had been resolved!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Food for thought, Jan 10 2003
Do you know what Christopher Columbus was trying to prove with his historic ocean voyage, and why the church elders insisted it couldn't be done? Eco asks this question in the first essay of this book, "The Force of Falsity", and you may be surprised by the answer. Throughout, Eco gives you that delightful taste of history that he's known for, while asking provocative questions about the philosophy of language and even the nature and value of truth itself.Language is definitely the focus of this book, but each essay is more of an examination than a thesis, and the material is not as heavy as Eco's essays about language often are. On the other hand it is not as light and playful as, for example, "Misreadings" (also a worthy read). It's a casual, engaging read with some substance to it, and well worth reading if you like to think.
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