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Kinds of Minds - The Origins Of Consciousness (Paperback, Re-issue) Loot Price: R156
Discovery Miles 1 560
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Kinds of Minds - The Origins Of Consciousness (Paperback, Re-issue): Daniel C. Dennett

Kinds of Minds - The Origins Of Consciousness (Paperback, Re-issue)

Daniel C. Dennett

Series: Science Masters S.

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List price R195 Loot Price R156 Discovery Miles 1 560 You Save R39 (20%)

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Dennett wears his philosophical hat in this short volume, based on lectures given at University College, Dublin and Canterbury University (New Zealand). As a result, there is more intellectual gameplay here than late news from the neuroscience front, making for a volume that is sometimes stimulating, but often frustrating. Dennett (Center for Cognitive Studies/Tufts Univ.) is a clever writer and has written insightfully about mind matters in Consciousness Explained (1991) and evolution in Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995). But in assuming the philosopher's stance here he admits to raising more questions than answers. At the same time he introduces into these lectures a welter of specialized languages and theories, including the vocabulary of ontology, epistemology, and a string of associated concepts, such as intentionality; the notion of an agent or doer or a "mind-haver"; physical and design stances; associationism, behaviorism, and connectionism (as in neural networks), referred to as ABC learning and so on. To what avail? Simply, it seems, to come to some conclusions about where in the Darwinian scheme of things thinking and consciousness (and self-consciousness) come into being. In the end, Dennett strongly supports the notion that only with language comes thought. Further, we only arrive in the abstract multidimensional world of ideas by means of written language and the ability to extend our intelligence through the artful inventions of culture and its representations in books, computers, and records (our external mental "prosthetic" devices). So nix on intelligent chimps and dolphins, but maybe a kind word for dogs as having been bred to respond to humans. Not a book that will be embraced by animal champions. And not Dennett at his best. (Kirkus Reviews)
What kinds of minds are there, and how do we know? The first question is about what exists and the second is about our knowledge. The aim of Kinds of Minds is to answer these questions, in general outline, and to show why these two questions have to be answered together. What exists is one thing. What we can know about is something else. But we know enough about minds, Dennett argues, to know that one of the things that makes them different from everything else in the universe is the way we know about them. 'Provoking but clarifying ...Daniel Dennett's book is a memorable and stimulating work of popular scientific explanation. It thoroughly readjusts the reader's mental image of what the mind is and how it got there but leaves one surprised that the explanation can be ultimately so simple when the implications are so vast' Anthony Smith, Observer

General

Imprint: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Series: Science Masters S.
Release date: September 1997
Authors: Daniel C. Dennett
Dimensions: 129 x 196 x 19mm (L x W x T)
Format: Paperback - B-format
Pages: 192
Edition: Re-issue
ISBN-13: 978-0-7538-0043-0
Categories: Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > General
Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Metaphysics & ontology
Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Epistemology, theory of knowledge
Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Philosophy of mind
Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Epistemology, theory of knowledge
Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Metaphysics & ontology
Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Philosophy of mind
LSN: 0-7538-0043-8
Barcode: 9780753800430

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