This is six months late. But I still want to blog about it. Greg Gore, the publisher of Raymond Smullyan’s “Rambles Through My Library” wrote to me in August 2009 for permission to post my blog review excerpt of Smullyan’s book on the Praxis website. I was of course more than happy to have the [...]

Thanks to a loan from YY several months back, I am currently reading Gaisi Takeuti’s “Memoirs of a Proof Theorist“. This is a compilation of English-translated articles on Godel originally written by Takeuti in Japanese. Unfortunately, the book suffers from some awkward English sentences. The grammar of some sentences could also be further improved. I [...]

Last night, I finished reading Raymond Smullyan’s “Rambles Through My Library”. I was absolutely sure I would have enjoyed the book even more if I was in a more idle mood. In the rambling and distracted style of the book, I will share some passages from the book and my reactions to these passages. Smullyan’s [...]

Some Rambles Inspired by Taoism and Zen:

Ah how wonderful to see Raymond Smullyan on youtube. I wonder if we will get to see a video of his logic lectures. Bach Organ Prelude and Fugue (Clip 2 of 7) Bach Organ Prelude and Fugue (Clip 3 of 7)

I also wish to record some other events before the year ends. This year is a year of reunion. Many friends I’ve not seen for years, such as my ex-neighbours from my teens, I finally got to meet a few months back. I also recently found an ex-classmate whom I’ve lost touch with since I [...]

Martin Gardner, the grand old man of recreational mathematics and puzzles, once wrote that Raymond Smullyan “is a unique set of personalities that includes a philosopher, logician, mathematician, musician, magician, humorist, writer, and maker of marvelous puzzles.” In this delightful video, you can hear Smullyan playing Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Beethoven Sonatas, Scarlatti Sonatas and Schubert’s [...]

Philosophical discussion in Cambridge – Part 1 In video above, Wittgenstein lectures on the thought behind a word or a sentence like “This is a very pleasant pineapple. Philosophical discussion in Cambridge – Part 2 In video above, a dialogue takes place between Wittgenstein, Russell and his wife (played by Tilda Swinton) about whether Wittgenstein [...]

Got stumped again by another Smullyan puzzle in the same chapter of the book I mentioned earlier in this post. The said post contains the background necessary to solve this puzzle. 1. Given any two inhabitants, A and B, either A trusts B or he doesn’t. 2. Some of the inhabitants are teachers of other [...]

This is not the hardest puzzle in Raymond Smullyan’s “The Lady or The Tiger” but I still found it very tricky and could not get it right even though it’s the second time I’ve attempted it. First some background. Inspector Craig of Scotland Yard was called over to France to investigate eleven insane asylums where [...]