Philosophica-82478-Van Bendegem

REVIEWS 139
Patelli Palmarini, M. (eds.), L'unite de l'homme, vol. 2: Le

cerveau humain, Paris, Seuil, CoIl. Points, pp. 156-181.
Maturana, Humberto R., 1981, "Autopoiesis", in Zeleny, Milan
(ed.), 1981, Autopoiesis. A theory of living organisation, New
York-Oxford, North Holland, pp. 21-33.
Maturana, Humberto R., Varela, Francisco J., 1980, Autopoiesis
and cognition. The realization of the living, Dordrecht, D.
Reidel Pub. Co., Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science,
vol. 42, 1980, pp. 140.
Varela, Francisco J., 1979, Principles of biological autonomy, New
York (Oxford), North-Holland Elsevier Company, The North-
Holland Series in General Systems Research, vol. 2, pp. 306.
Varela, Francisco J., 1986, "Experimental epistemology: Back-
ground and Future", Cahiers du CREA, mars 1986, nr. 9:
Cognition et complexite, pp. 107-123.
Varela, F.J., Maturana, H.R., Uribe, R., 1974, "Autopoiesis: the
organisation of living systems, its characterization and a
model", Biosystems, vol. 5, nr.4, pp. 187-196.
Gertrudis Van de Vijver

Aspirant N.F.W.O.
* * *
Thomas Nagel, What does it all mean? A very short introduction
to philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
As the subtitle indicates, this is indeed a very short intro-

duction to philosophy. One hundred and one pages to get you
acquainted with epistemology, ontology, ethics and the meaning
of life. Actually the last sentence of the book is "Life may be not
only meaningless but absurd." (p. 101) Presented thus, I assume
one is not very eager to read this book. Eleven pages to explain
the mind-body problem, seven pages to tell you what the mean-
ing of life is all about. Is this a serious way of doing philoso-
phy? The answer to that question is : no, in ninety-nine per
cent of the cases. The book under review does not belong to
that category. If someone confronts you with the problem "Get
me an introduction to philosophy and I only have one evening
free to read it", I can recommend Thomas Nagel's introduction. If
for the umpteenth time you are asked "What philosophy is all
about", tell him or her to read this book.
Writing a historical introduction to philosophy within the.
limits mentioned is obviously impossible. Instead Thomas Nagel
has taken the problem-oriented view. The book is basically a list
140 REVIEWS
of problems and questions. Starting from everyday situations

problematical features are identified leading straight away to
core questions in philosophy. There are no final answers to be
found here and this is precisely what this reviewer enjoyed
most. Finishing the book the reader must have the impression
that philosophy is a very lively subject, filled with open prob-
lems and difficult questions to be answered. To my mind a very
adequate characterization. .
The professional philosopher will perhaps not be inclined to
read this book but I would recommend it to anyone involved with
philosophy teaching. How would you go about explaining the'
complex relation between a deterministic world-view and the free
will problem? Thomas Nagel shows how it can be done and quite
impressively so.
Jean Paul Van Bendegem
* * *
Michael D. Resnik, Choices. An introduction to decision theory.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.
This book is an excellent introduction to decision theory. Nearly

all subfields are covered: decisions under ignorance, probability
theory, decisions under risk, utility theory, game theory and
social decision theory. The most important results are not only
mentioned but the proofs are presented and are discussed in
detail. To mention a few: DeFinetti's Dutch Book Theorem (proba-
bility theory), Von Neumann-Morgenstern's Maximin Theorem for
two-by-two zero-sum games (game theory) and Kenneth Arrow's
Impossibility Theorem (social decision theory). Speaking as a
mathematician I really enjoyed some of these proofs: clear,
perspicuous and avoiding complex mathematical techniques. This
implies that the book is accessible to anyone with a basic
training in mathematics. I
Michael Resnik is a philosopher. This almost tautological state-

ment has the non-trivial consequence that the book is a philo-
sophical introduction as well. The most famous paradoxes -
Allais's Paradox, Ellsberg's Paradox, the Predictor Paradox, the
Prisoner's Dilemma - are all thoroughly treated. Causal decision
theory, developed in an attempt to solve the Predictor Paradox,
is mentioned as an alternative. As no introduction to any (seri-
ous) subject can claim completeness, it would be too easy to list
the topics not treated here. Nevertheless, "I just mention one. In
the Prisoner's Dilemma it is important to make a distinction

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REVIEWS 139

Patelli Palmarini, M. (eds.), L'unite de l'homme, vol. 2: Le

Gertrudis Van de Vijver

As the subtitle indicates, this is indeed a very short intro-

of problems and questions. Starting from everyday situations

Jean Paul Van Bendegem

This book is an excellent introduction to decision theory. Nearly

Michael Resnik is a philosopher. This almost tautological state-

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