BARNUMISM OF PUZZLES, or HOW TO FOOL WISELY?

Abstract

The study examines the contradictory nature of the culture of intellectual leisure, attention is paid to the conflict between the rational nature of cognitive procedures for solving tasks and the intuitive-emotional side of the creative nature of a person. The subject of attention is those methods of creating the context of laughing, which are themselves based on an intellectual foundation. The effect of the organic conjunction of imaginary antagonists - culture and intellectuality - is examined using the example of puzzles, which exemplify one of the most obvious specimens of the culture of intellectual leisure. The principal barnumism (funny cheating, humbugs) of puzzles considered on the example of puzzles associated with the name of Samuel Loyd, the American author of numerous entertaining tasks and one of the coryphaei of intellectual leisure. These puzzles not only clearly demonstrate the arsenal of the barnumism – gimmicks, trickery, they retain an intellectual foundation, remaining, for example, good illustrations of aspects of covering the plane with circles (“Barnum”s Magic Donkeys”), mathematical analysis (“Teddy and Lions”), or permutation theory and combinatorics in general (“The 14–15 Puzzle”). The term “barnumism” (like the “Barnum effect”) originated from the name of Phineas Taylor Barnum – the showman, the entrepreneur, the founder of the American circus “The Greatest Show on Earth”. The potential of the barnumism of puzzles of to overcome of the conflict between the rational and entertaining sides of intellectual leisure is substantiated.