The Black Swan

“This has become an absolute classic. Even though Taleb did not formally study philosophy at university, this is a very philosophical book. He is well-read in philosophy, and he discusses many philosophers and philosophical arguments. Taleb makes a convincing case for why some things in life are always going to be unpredictable. He uses many examples and many arguments, but perhaps one argument worth mentioning is from the work of Karl Popper. This is how, for completely logical reasons, you cannot predict where history is going. History is greatly influenced by developments in science and technology and there is no infallible way to predict where these will go next. If we could predict that, we would already know what we don’t know. And that’s impossible.” Read more...

The best books on Prediction and Prophecy

Carissa Véliz, Philosopher