Insurmountable simplicities : 39 philosophical conundrums / Roberto Casati, Achille Varzi ; translated by Achille Varzi.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Room 88 -- About a useless project -- The poet as a young man -- The chain of events leading up to the goal -- Zombie Incorporated sleeping pills -- Partial amnesia -- Person transplant -- My ice cream, your ice cream -- Playing lotto in Reverse City -- Lucky numbers -- The invisible disorder -- A missive from the bell-ringer -- Sparkling bubbles -- Dates of birth -- Four-Seasons Island -- Lost beauty spots -- Hic sunt leones -- Reflections -- The last case of the President of Amoebas -- The hidden statue -- A cupboard in pieces -- Holter monitor -- Row 13 -- Train cancelled -- Satellites -- Verbatim -- The intelligent dictionary -- The traveler's pictionary -- Ink marks -- Forced choices -- What does the majority want? -- Law number One -- Proud to be third -- The placebo effect -- Interesting! -- Self-reference self-explained -- The surprise visit -- A risky cake -- Universal acid.

Translated from the Italian.

Bite-sized bits of thought-provoking philosophy are explored in this book of brainteasers. Philosopher-authors Casati and Varzi use playlets, short fiction and imagined correspondence to explore philosophical conundrums ranging from time travel to the sinister ways mirrors work. The prose tends toward the roundabout (Cause and Time are addressed--is it reasonable to build a machine to travel back into the Past, and, by traveling back into the Past, one could induce changes in the Present?).