Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness (Science Masters)

Daniel C. Dennett

ISBN 10: 0297815466 / ISBN 13: 9780297815464

Published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1996

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of ...

Publisher: Weidenfeld and Nicholson

Publication Date: 1996

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Used; Good

About this title

Synopsis:

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

Review:

At the beginning of Kinds of Minds Dennett asks, "What kinds of minds are there? And how do we know?" These two questions--the first ontological, the second epistemological--set the agenda for the book. Intuitions untutored by theory are not capable of answering these questions, Dennett argues, making it necessary to pursue insight from the evolutionary point of view. Accordingly, subsequent chapters are devoted to phylogenetic speculations about agency and intentionality, sensitivity and sentience and perception and behaviour. Particularly charming is the series of squiggly amoebas--the Darwinian, Skinnerian, Popperian and Gregorian creatures--that illustrates the hierarchy of cognitive power. In the final chapter, Dennett returns to the original two questions, ending not with their answers, but, he hopes, with "better versions of the questions themselves".

In Consciousness Explained, Dennett embarked on the audacious task of explaining human consciousness. He sets his sights even higher for Kinds of Minds, attempting to provide a more general explanation of consciousness. But don't be put off: the book is short, easy to read and makes a good introduction to Dennett's richly interdisciplinary oeuvre. While beginners will appreciate Dennett's appeals to intuitive moral considerations to emphasise the importance of investigating consciousness, there is much in the book to hold the attention of readers already familiar with his previous work. --Glenn Branch