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Title: Consciousness Explained by Daniel C. Dennett, Paul Weiner ISBN: 0-316-18065-3 Publisher: Little Brown & Co Pub. Date: 01 October, 1991 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.18 (67 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A new model to consider . . .
Comment: Mr. Daniel C. Dennett is also author of Brainstorms and coauthor of The Mind's I. George Johnson, New York Times Book Review stated that this book was "Brilliant . . as audacious as its title . . ." and I could not agree more. This text is well written and put together in such a manner that the concepts are accessible even to those of us who are not scientists by training. Yet, the change in the model of the brain presented here is very difficult for me to grasp. I like the concept of thinking about a massively parallel processor as the model for how the brain does what it does, but translating that into a new concept of no one central place where "consciousness takes place," is very difficult indeed. Like many, my view of human consciousness was that there was a central place, an observer that kept me neatly in time and space. Not so, says Dennett.
"Each normal individual of this species [homo sapiens]," says Mr. Dennett, "makes a self. Out of its brain it spins a web of words and deeds, and, like the other creatures, it doesn't have to know what it is doing; it just does it. This web protects it, just like the snail' shell, and provides it a livelihood, just like the spider's web, and advances its prospects for sex, just like the bowerbird's bower." He goes on to point out that this web of discourse and deeds is as much a biological product as any of the other constructions to be found in the animal world.
Mr. Dennett goes on to explain that this complex set of cultural transmissions (memes) such as tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, etc. can best be understood as the operation of a "von Neumannesque" virtual machine implemented in the parallel architecture of a brain that was not designed for any such activities. In other words, we have learned to use our brains for new functions as we evolved. And, as we spin this web of discourse, we create for ourselves a sense of time-space and orient ourselves in that time-space in such a way as to disconnect ourselves from "creation" and give ourselves and others a sense of "individual."
The book concludes with appendices that direct themselves to specialized language and explanations for Philosophers and Scientists. All in all, a very difficult but rewarding read. I found this book challenging to say the least, and yet I highly recommended it to those interested in how the evolution of human consciousness.
Rating: 5
Summary: Everything in this book is correct
Comment: The above sentence may seem over stated, but I'm keeping it because this is the only book I've ever been able to say that about--no other has come close. 100 years from now Dennet's theories will seem obvious, taken for granted.
Advice to potential buyers: the book isn't the easiest to read. Though Dennet masterfully makes perhaps the most challenging subject fun and accessible, it remains perhaps the most challenging subject. A great deal of the book is just spent in laying the groundwork, getting the reader to the point where they can accept ideas that are counter-intuitive given our long history of societal misinformation. It makes for quite an extensive read, but when you're finished you'll have the same sense of completeness that follows a satisfying, well-balanced meal.
Don't bother to read this book if you believe from the start that consciousness "can't" be explained. I'm sure that's not the advice Dennet would give you, but if you think it's impossible, it will be, for you. Just go on reading what you've been reading, and maybe someday you'll be able to accept something new, or if not, maybe your children will, or your cultural heirs. The title "consciousness explained" could appeal to just about every human being, but the book will not. It's not a book for starry-eyed romantics. It's not the first book you should read on the subject. I read this book because a lot of intelligent authors cited it, but it was only after 4 or 5 citations accumulated in my mind that I built up to reading it. Put it this way: if you're the kind of person who has seriously used the word "soulmate", or perhaps even "soul", lately, this book will let you down. The not-so-surprise ending is that there's really no such thing as "consciousness" (I think I'm stating this more explicitly than Dennet does, but not too much more). "Consciousness" is an amalgam of human behaviors we can point to--artistic creativity, byzantine social fabrics--but that doesn't mean that it is a thing that exists in the brain, any more than the Wizard of Oz was an omniscient omnipotent being.
What the book seems to me to be most about is not consciousness or a theory of consciousness, but human fallibility. We have grown up--as individuals and as a culture--believing that we are infallible, that we know more than we possibly could. If you think you are a die-hard materialist, Dennet has a surprise for you--you only think you are, but you still almost certainly share a lot of mystical ideas left over as cultural baggage from centuries ago. There are so many ways for us to be mistaken, and Dennet points out so many that he seems at points like a stage magician, taking advantage of our pre-conditioning, but he is a benevolent magician, for he explains the tricks afterward, so we will not continue tricking ourselves.
Also, Dennet is known as a philosopher, but this book is aobut reality. It is not about inventing torturous terminology by capitalizing ordinary words such as Mind, Being, Idea. It is about tumors in the brain, blindness in half of the visual field, computer aided design programs, empirical experiments with unambiguous results.
If you're like I was though, and you've seen this book referred to by some of your favorite authors, then it is worth its reputation. This book answered all my questions and had answers to questions not yet formed in my mind.
Rating: 1
Summary: Irritating
Comment: Dennett is this pompous author who plunges into the subject without a proper appreciation of the complexities of the matter. If Dennett has explained consciousness, why aren't we building consciousn machines already?
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Title: DARWIN'S DANGEROUS IDEA: EVOLUTION AND THE MEANINGS OF LIFE by Daniel C. Dennett ISBN: 068482471X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Freedom Evolves by Daniel C. Dennett ISBN: 0670031860 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 10 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker ISBN: 0393318486 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness (Science Masters Series) by Daniel C. Dennett ISBN: 0465073514 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.50 |
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Title: The Mystery of Consciousness by John R. Searle ISBN: 0940322064 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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