"The Lady or the Tiger" is, quite literally, probably the single most influential book from my childhood. In 6th grade, my math teacher had a copy in his classroom. He noticed that I spent so much time before class, after class, (during class) reading it, that at the end of the school year he told me I could take it home so long as I promised to bring it back at the end of the summer. (He was also the 7th and 8th grade math teacher.)
I took that book home and treasured it for the whole summer, pouring over each puzzle, solving each one without peeking at the answers, then comparing my answers to the ones in the back of the book. By the end of the summer I think there were only 1 or 2 I hadn't been able to work out myself. Sure enough, as the first day of 7th grade rolled around, it was in my backpack and promptly returned to the shelf of my math teacher's classroom. Satisfied that I had gotten all I could from "The Lady or the Tiger", I next turned my attention to the Apple IIe he had sitting in the corner and a book entitled "Apple Basic".
The rest, as they say, is history.
One final note...as I continued through school and university, I gradually came to realize that Taoism was the school of philosophy that matched most closely to how I understood the world and is, in some sense, the closest thing I have to a "religion". It wasn't until much later in life (well after I turned 30), that I happened to stumble back across Smullyan and his writings, only to discover that he was also a rather adroit Taoist philosopher. (His "Is God a Taoist?" essay, http://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/godTao... is highly recommended.)
To this day I wonder if "The Lady or the Tiger" didn't have more of an impact on my early development than simply fostering a love of logic...
Thank you a lot for linking the "Is God a Taoist?" Essay. For somebody as young and easily influenced as me (who is currently not very involved in philosophy and religion) it might actually have a great impact on my understanding of both - or at least it is an excellent starting point for further thoughts on the subject.
"Oh come off it! You're not now talking to your Sunday school teacher, you are talking to me."
Someone once said that it isn't philosophy if it doesn't make you laugh. (If it only makes you laugh, it's not good philosophy.) It may have been Smullyan.
I took that book home and treasured it for the whole summer, pouring over each puzzle, solving each one without peeking at the answers, then comparing my answers to the ones in the back of the book. By the end of the summer I think there were only 1 or 2 I hadn't been able to work out myself. Sure enough, as the first day of 7th grade rolled around, it was in my backpack and promptly returned to the shelf of my math teacher's classroom. Satisfied that I had gotten all I could from "The Lady or the Tiger", I next turned my attention to the Apple IIe he had sitting in the corner and a book entitled "Apple Basic".
The rest, as they say, is history.
One final note...as I continued through school and university, I gradually came to realize that Taoism was the school of philosophy that matched most closely to how I understood the world and is, in some sense, the closest thing I have to a "religion". It wasn't until much later in life (well after I turned 30), that I happened to stumble back across Smullyan and his writings, only to discover that he was also a rather adroit Taoist philosopher. (His "Is God a Taoist?" essay, http://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/godTao... is highly recommended.)
To this day I wonder if "The Lady or the Tiger" didn't have more of an impact on my early development than simply fostering a love of logic...