My first reaction to a lot of it was "no one believes that though", but on reflection I felt that the wider point - society acts as if it is true - probably did hold, even if individuals had more nuanced views. And, of course, with a background in Mathematical philosophy the "well *duh*!" reaction I had to a lot of his points may have been very specific to my background.

I suspect my Dad gave it to me shortly after it appeared, he's been extremely cognitively disabled for the past 12 years, so he certainly didn't give it to me later than 2003. My guess would be that he gave it to me shortly after it was published, and my guess would be that he gave it because it was much talked about in scientific circles at the time (he was a nuclear physicist) and he knew I had an interest in science and philosophy. I'm mildly embarrassed that it has clearly taken me 20 years to get around to reading it - though I suspect at the time I would merely have been outraged rather than grasping its more detailed points.