ben_sch's review against another edition
3.0
The title would be more accurate if it was "Tools for thinking about thinking", as it's largely a collection of thought experiments useful for thinking about consciousness and free will.
After a nice soft ending, I thought this book had taken the edge off of my "attitude problem" with philosophy. After a little reflection, I guess not. I still have a strong sense of confusion, especially with what Dennet is arguing against. In a certain sense, I feel that many of his intuition pumps were failures, in that I was not provoked to change my mind about anything. After he would "turn the knobs" on a pump and acceptably replace words in an argument to reach an unacceptable conclusion, I would end up staring at the page thinking "It's the same. I don't get it."
I guess in summary I could say that for the parts that I already believed, I followed along and learned a few more details. For the parts where he was arguing against other philosophers, I usually didn't get the point. As with Sam Harris, I feel like he could state certain conclusions about consciousness and free will, much more strongly and clearly, and I'm frustrated when he doesn't do so.
After a nice soft ending, I thought this book had taken the edge off of my "attitude problem" with philosophy. After a little reflection, I guess not. I still have a strong sense of confusion, especially with what Dennet is arguing against. In a certain sense, I feel that many of his intuition pumps were failures, in that I was not provoked to change my mind about anything. After he would "turn the knobs" on a pump and acceptably replace words in an argument to reach an unacceptable conclusion, I would end up staring at the page thinking "It's the same. I don't get it."
I guess in summary I could say that for the parts that I already believed, I followed along and learned a few more details. For the parts where he was arguing against other philosophers, I usually didn't get the point. As with Sam Harris, I feel like he could state certain conclusions about consciousness and free will, much more strongly and clearly, and I'm frustrated when he doesn't do so.
7anooch's review against another edition
3.0
Not a bad book, but a bit rambly and I don’t think actually does what it claims to be a book about. Seems like a book Dennett wrote to convince himself that he’s smart.
zb1113's review against another edition
4.0
Tackles subjects such as Meaning, Evolution, Consciousness, Free Will, Qualia/Subjectivity, and how computers and thought experiments can pump intuitions about each of these subjects. Clings to his Darwinism and Pragmatism pretty strong throughout and his compatibilism certainly challenges many assumption about determinism.
meisterkleister's review against another edition
5.0
'You can't do much carpentry with your bare hands, and you can't do much thinking with your bare brain.'
'The aim of philosophy, abstractly formulated, is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term.'
The solutions to the most difficult questions in existence, about the universe, life, meaning, free will and consciousness are not intuitive. If they were, we would've figured them out long ago. Daniel Dennett's book offers a plethora of Thinking Tools drawn from computer science, biology and many other realms which, like the apps on your phone, give you the power to do more things better - to think difficults thoughts more easily, and even tackle the most difficult questions about meaning and consciousness. It's designed to change your way of thinking and to nudge you out of some ultimately wrong intuitions you may hold. It is basically a summary of his life's work.
I think Dennett's toolkit, which is made out of many thought experiments ('Intuition Pumps') and more, is extremely useful for any aspiring thinker, whether you agree with him or not.
'The aim of philosophy, abstractly formulated, is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term.'
The solutions to the most difficult questions in existence, about the universe, life, meaning, free will and consciousness are not intuitive. If they were, we would've figured them out long ago. Daniel Dennett's book offers a plethora of Thinking Tools drawn from computer science, biology and many other realms which, like the apps on your phone, give you the power to do more things better - to think difficults thoughts more easily, and even tackle the most difficult questions about meaning and consciousness. It's designed to change your way of thinking and to nudge you out of some ultimately wrong intuitions you may hold. It is basically a summary of his life's work.
I think Dennett's toolkit, which is made out of many thought experiments ('Intuition Pumps') and more, is extremely useful for any aspiring thinker, whether you agree with him or not.
mark_lm's review against another edition
5.0
Another brilliant discussion from Dr. Dennett about consciousness, evolution and free will.
I don't find the conceit of the intuition pump as compared to a thought experiment, or in some cases, an analogy especially interesting, but it is fascinating and exhilarating to read the discussion from someone who thinks about what he thinks about for a living. I have read Dennett on free will before and sometimes found the intricacies to be beyond me, but chapters 65-73 here, perhaps because of the "intuition pumps" used, were unusually enlightening. Highly recommended.
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Part of the edge of this writing comes from the critical environment in which these topics have been discussed, and to some degree from the author's own ego, which one suspects is large. One possible negative side effect is the chapter entitled "Three species of Goulding" which attacks Stephen Jay Gould's logical errors. Dr. Gould, and his theory of punctuated equilibrium, were fairly widely attacked during his lifetime. The attacks seemed over the top at times (I recall one memorable diatribe attacking Dr. Gould's father's politics), probably because of his celebrity, the popularity of his books, and that his theory was attractive to some creationists. Since he died in 2002, I think he is now a fairly soft target, and the way that the material in chapter 9 is presented is unnecessarily harsh.
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Part of the edge of this writing comes from the critical environment in which these topics have been discussed, and to some degree from the author's own ego, which one suspects is large. One possible negative side effect is the chapter entitled "Three species of Goulding" which attacks Stephen Jay Gould's logical errors. Dr. Gould, and his theory of punctuated equilibrium, were fairly widely attacked during his lifetime. The attacks seemed over the top at times (I recall one memorable diatribe attacking Dr. Gould's father's politics), probably because of his celebrity, the popularity of his books, and that his theory was attractive to some creationists. Since he died in 2002, I think he is now a fairly soft target, and the way that the material in chapter 9 is presented is unnecessarily harsh.
thirtytwobirds's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful little book about how to think. The "turning the knobs" idea is something I've already begun to use.
It's actually a surprisingly nice introduction to computer science if you need it.
It's actually a surprisingly nice introduction to computer science if you need it.
demonxore's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
3.5
This is a great collection of thought experiments that can train you to use your brain in perhaps more efficient ways. The sections are very short and bite-sized, so it's easy to make good progress though this book in a short amount of time. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn some tricks for being a better thinker.
nandryshak's review against another edition
challenging
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.5