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| The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul
Paperback
Author: Daniel C. Dennett
Publisher: Basic Books
Release Date: 2001-01
ISBN-10: 0465030912
ISBN-13: 9780465030910
List Price: $22.95
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
With contributions from Jorge Luis Borges, Richard Dawkins, John Searle, and Robert Nozick, The Mind's I explores the meaning of self and consciousness through the perspectives of literature, artificial intelligence, psychology, and other disciplines. In selections that range from fiction to scientific speculations about thinking machines, artificial intelligence, and the nature of the brain, Hofstadter and Dennett present a variety of conflicting visions of the self and the soul as explored through the writings of some of the twentieth century's most renowned thinkers.
Hofstadter's Accustomed Brilliance
| Customer Rating: | Hofstadter delivers a vastly enjoyable account accessible to any intelligent non-specialist, but on this occasion requiring far less persistence than Gödel, Escher, Bach. The ground he covers encompasses some of the most traditionally intractable problems in philosophy, yet his accounts of the various thought experiments and the issues they do and do not illuminate never appear impenetrable. The book is organised into a collection of vignettes that can easily be bitten off and chewed over independently. You will, it must be said, probably not come away from a reading with a clear answer as to the nature of the self, the seat and origin of consciousness or whether the Matrix has us. This is no fault of the author's, as some of the questions have never been answered and some of them are intrinsically irresolvable. You'll have a good understanding, though - assuming you do not start with it - of just why they are or are not irresolvable and where philosophy currently stands on them.
A masterpiece of erudition and clarity.
Later edit: I should point out that I only credited Hofstadter, writing some time after I read the book. As I have been reminded in the comment and as I belatedly realised, the credit accrues to multiple contributors. |
I am he as you are me
| Customer Rating:  | | THE MIND'S I is not the seamless tour de force Hofstadter laid out in GODEL, ESCHER, BACH (Vintage Books, 1979), but comprises another delightful exploration of consciousness and in a much more accessible way. Who or what is it that knows what you know you know? You know? You, no? Whaddya no? Etc. |
Mine's Aye
| Customer Rating: | Look if you're here, then you want this book.
You can't have landed on this page by accident. There is no search that does not include Dennet or Hofstadter or Dawkins or cognitive psychology or philosophy of the mind that brings you hear. So, yes, you want to buy this book.
Two of the most important advents in cognitive and evolutionary psychology take shape rather easily in these pages. The first is Dr Hofstadter PRELUDE... ANT FUGUE; the second is Richard Dawkins extention of genetic principles - to mimetic principles.
If you're new to the term, think "mimetics" is the genetics of "ideas." Why do some slogans survive? Why does some information survive? Why do some idea-conepts - capitalism, pop music, Dora the Explorer - survive in the hive of the Group Mind of society while other ideas - the pet rock, the betamax, the Edsel - die?
Mimetics is the study of the 'survival of the fittest' of ideas. It is the cognitive extension of natural selection.
Second, is meta-yet-unmeta presentation of Hofstadter's PRELUDE... ANT FUGUE. In a subconsciously self-aware narrative (best way to describe it), the story of Anteater and her relationship with an Anthill describes how the cognition and consciousness of the human mind may have arisen from the 'simple' electrical impulses of neurons firing.
The third critical piece of the triumverate of evolutionary cognition (in my opinion) is contained inside Daniel Dennett's book CONSCIOUSNESS EXPLAINED. In that, he describes how external 'orientation events' might unify the random 'reactions' of a primitive organism to its environment, into a *conscious* pattern of response by organism to its external environment.
If you're new to these ideas, this place is a great place to start because - being a collection of essays - it can be read and pondered at a personal pace.
And the commentary provided ain't by no slouches either.
****The only caveat would be if you do have an expansive background in cognitive philosophy or evolutionary psychology - much of this work is reprinted from previous sources. Obviously, Dawkins and Hofstadter's most famous work is taken from their most famous books. However, the commentary and additional selections by the two authors is valuable to any student of this subject. |
Tickle your philosophical funny bone
| Customer Rating: | I first read "The Mind's I" in high school and regularly reread its various essays.
Even with a quarter-century of age, it hasn't lost any of its luster. Indeed, with advances in cognitive science and neuroscience giving more empirical underpinning to at least a few of the speculations in this book, its mental value has actually increased.
Although you may not agree with the philosphical angle of each essay, you won't be able to honestly disagree without having your own cognition and philosophical views deeply scratched and stimulated. |
Brilliant, but Soulless.
| Customer Rating: | The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Douglas Hofstadter uses a combination of science fiction short stories and commentary to comprise a withering and devastating attack on the ego, soul, and afterlife. Hofstadter's thesis is that human beings are nothing but DNA propagation robots. He argues against the existence of a soul and against the existence of an after-life. He lets various Sci-Fi stories make his arguments for him. Taken alone, these stories are thought provoking. Taken together along with Hofstadter's commentary its like getting hit by the Mac truck of reality. If your religious convictions regarding the soul and after-life are tenuous, you may not want to read this book. You may finish feeling smug, soulless, and bitter. |
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