false 1387 2067 067003472X 9780670034727 76 <![CDATA[Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814094m/2067.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814094s/2067.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2067.Breaking_the_Spell_Religion_as_a_Natural_Phenomenon 3.74 537 An innovative thinker tackles the controversial question of why we believe in God and how religion shapes our lives and our future

For a growing number of people, there is nothing more important than religion. It is an integral part of their marriage, child rearing, and community. In this daring new book, distinguished philosopher Daniel C. Dennett takes a hard look at this phenomenon and asks why. Where does our devotion to God come from and what purpose does it serve? Is religion a blind evolutionary compulsion or a rational choice? In Breaking the Spell, Dennett argues that the time has come to shed the light of science on the fundamental questions of faith.

In a spirited narrative that ranges widely through history, philosophy, and psychology, Dennett explores how organized religion evolved from folk beliefs and why it is such a potent force today. Deftly and lucidly, he contends that the "belief in belief" has fogged any attempt to rationally consider the existence of God and the relationship between divinity and human need.

Breaking the Spell is not an antireligious screed but rather an eyeopening exploration of the role that belief plays in our lives, our interactions, and our country. With the gulf between rationalists and adherents of "intelligent design" widening daily, Dennett has written a timely and provocative book that will be read and passionately debated by believers and nonbelievers alike.

]]> 1387 3.92 2720 317 2006 2068 068482471X 9780684824710 67 <![CDATA[Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223649815m/2068.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223649815s/2068.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2068.Darwin_s_Dangerous_Idea_Evolution_and_the_Meanings_of_Life 4.16 503 1387 3.92 2720 317 1995 2081 0553345842 9780553345841 20 <![CDATA[The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2081.The_Mind_s_I_Fantasies_and_Reflections_on_Self_and_Soul 4.06 380 The Mind's I is a searching, probing book—a  cosmic journey of the mind—that goes deeply into the problem of self & self-consciousness as anything written in our time. From verbalizing chimpanzees to scientific speculations involving machines with souls, from the mesmerizing, maze-like  fiction of Borges to the tantalizing, dreamlike fiction of Lem & his Princess Ineffable, her circuits glowing read & gold, The Mind's I opens the mind to the Black Box of fantasy, to the windfalls of reflection, to new dimensions of exciting possibilities.]]> 13577 4.19 4721 719 1387 3.92 2720 317 2935456 4.04 399 22 822523 4.05 389 21 1194 4.03 18699 2777 500 4.43 16938 1394 1981 2069 0316180661 9780316180665 52 <![CDATA[Consciousness Explained]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814097m/2069.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814097s/2069.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2069.Consciousness_Explained 4.01 442 Dennett's writing, while always serious, is never solemn; who would have thought that combining philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience could be such fun? Not every reader will be convinced that Dennett has succeeded in explaining consciousness; many will feel that his account fails to capture essential features of conscious experience. But none will want to deny that the attempt was well worth making. --Glenn Branch

]]> 1387 3.92 2720 317 1991 2071 0142003840 9780142003848 22 <![CDATA[Freedom Evolves]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814098m/2071.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814098s/2071.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2071.Freedom_Evolves 3.66 205 Freedom Evolves, Dennett seeks to place ethics on the foundation it deserves: a realistic, naturalistic, potentially unified vision of our place in nature.]]> 1387 3.92 2720 317 2004 2074 0465073514 9780465073511 12 <![CDATA[Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness (Science Masters Series)]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814099m/2074.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814099s/2074.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2074.Kinds_of_Minds_Towards_an_Understanding_of_Consciousness 3.67 108 Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett embarks 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 emphasize the importance of investigating consciousness, there is much in the book to hold the attention of readers already familiar with his previous work.

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 behavior. 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." --Glenn Branch

]]> 1387 3.92 2720 317 1996 2072 0262540371 9780262540377 0 <![CDATA[Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814099m/2072.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814099s/2072.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2072.Brainstorms_Philosophical_Essays_on_Mind_and_Psychology 3.79 58 Intentional Explanation and Attributions of Mentality; The Nature of Theory in Psychology; Objects of Consciousness and the Nature of Experience; and Free Will and Personhood.]]> 1387 3.92 2720 317 1978 2078 0262540428 9780262540421 8 <![CDATA[Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814134m/2078.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814134s/2078.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2078.Elbow_Room_The_Varieties_of_Free_Will_Worth_Wanting 3.54 69 Brainstorms and (with Douglas Hofstadter) The Mind's I, tackles the free will problem in a highly original and witty manner, drawing on the theories and concepts of several fields usually ignored by philosophers; not just physics and evolutionary biology, but engineering, automata theory, and artificial intelligence.

In Elbow Room, Dennett shows how the classical formulations of the problem in philosophy depend on misuses of imagination, and he disentangles the philosophical problems of real interest from the "family of anxieties' they get enmeshed in - imaginary agents, bogeymen, and dire prospects that seem to threaten our freedom. Putting sociobiology in its rightful place, he concludes that we can have free will and science too.

Elbow Room begins by showing how we can be "moved by reasons" without being exempt from physical causation. It goes on to analyze concepts of control and self-control-concepts often skimped by philosophers but which are central to the questions of free will and determinism. A chapter on "self-made selves" discusses the idea of self or agent to see how it can be kept from disappearing under the onslaught of science. Dennett then sees what can be made of the notion of acting under the idea of freedomdoes the elbow room we think we have really exist? What is an opportunity, and how can anything in our futures be "up to us"? He investigates the meaning of "can" and "could have done otherwise," and asks why we want free will in the first place.

We are wise, Dennett notes, to want free will, but that in itself raises a host of questions about responsibility. In a final chapter, he takes up the problem of how anyone can ever be guilty, and what the rationale is for holding people responsible and even, on occasion, punishing them.

Daniel C. Dennett is Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. Elbow Room is an expanded version of the John Locke Lectures which he gave at Oxford University in 1983.

A Bradford Book.]]> 1387 3.92 2720 317 1984 2070 0262541912 9780262541916 6 <![CDATA[Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814097m/2070.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814097s/2070.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2070.Sweet_Dreams_Philosophical_Obstacles_to_a_Science_of_Consciousness 3.47 38 Consciousness Explained was published in 1991, scientific research on consciousness has been a hotly contested battleground of rival theories -- "so rambunctious," Dennett observes, "that several people are writing books just about the tumult." With Sweet Dreams, Dennett returns to the subject for "revision and renewal" of his theory of consciousness, taking into account major empirical advances in the field since 1991 as well as recent theoretical challenges.

In Consciousness Explained, Dennett proposed to replace the ubiquitous but bankrupt Cartesian Theater model (which posits a privileged place in the brain where "it all comes together" for the magic show of consciousness) with the Multiple Drafts Model. Drawing on psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, he asserted that human consciousness is essentially the mental software that reorganizes the functional architecture of the brain. In Sweet Dreams, he recasts the Multiple Drafts Model as the "fame in the brain" model, as a background against which to examine the philosophical issues that "continue to bedevil the field."

With his usual clarity and brio, Dennett enlivens his arguments with a variety of vivid examples. He isolates the "Zombic Hunch" that distorts much of the theorizing of both philosophers and scientists, and defends heterophenomenology, his "third-person" approach to the science of consciousness, against persistent misinterpretations and objections. The old challenge of Frank Jackson's thought experiment about Mary the color scientist is given a new rebuttal in the form of "RoboMary," while his discussion of a famous card trick, "The Tuned Deck," is designed to show that David Chalmers's Hard Problem is probably just a figment of theorists' misexploited imagination. In the final essay, the "intrinsic" nature of "qualia" is compared with the naively imagined "intrinsic value" of a dollar in "Consciousness -- How Much is That in Real Money?"]]> 1387 3.92 2720 317 2005 2073 0262540533 9780262540537 2 <![CDATA[The Intentional Stance (Bradford Books)]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814099m/2073.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814099s/2073.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2073.The_Intentional_Stance 3.82 34 adopt a stance, a predictive strategy of interpretation that presupposes the rationality of the people - or other entities - we are hoping to understand and predict.

The 10 essays included here represent the vanguard of Dennett's thought, push his theories into surprising new territory, and reveal fresh lines of inquiry into fundamental issues in psychology, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary theory as well as traditional issues in the philosophy of mind

Daniel C. Dennett is Distinguished Arts and Sciences Professor at Tufts University and the author of Brainstorms and Elbow Room. A Bradford Book]]> 1387 3.92 2720 317 1987 1891702 0140265635 9780140265637 0 <![CDATA[Brainchildren]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1189880810m/1891702.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1189880810s/1891702.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1891702.Brainchildren 3.90 10 1387 3.92 2720 317 1998 6131417 0231140452 9780231140454 0 <![CDATA[Neuroscience and Philosophy: Brain, Mind, and Language]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6131417.Neuroscience_and_Philosophy_Brain_Mind_and_Language 0.0 0 211175 3.73 15 2 29174 3.72 456 37 26539 3.86 37 11 1387 3.92 2720 317 488477 3.77 26 3 2007 194207 0415104319 9780415104319 0 <![CDATA[Content and Consciousness]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172589267m/194207.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172589267s/194207.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/194207.Content_and_Consciousness 3.60 5 A pioneering work in the philosophy of mind, Content and Consciousness brings together the approaches of philosophers and scientists to the mind--a connection that must occur if genuine analysis of the mind is to be made. This unified approach permits the most forbiddingly mysterious mental phenomenon--consciousness--to be broken down into several distinct phenomena, and these are each given a foundation in the physical activity of the brain. This paperback edition contains a preface placing the book in the context of recent work in the area.

]]> 1387 3.92 2720 317 1969 2082 0262540916 9780262540919 1 <![CDATA[The Dennett Quartet: A Boxed Set of Brainstorms, Elbow Room, The Intentional Stance, and Brainchildren]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814140m/2082.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1159814140s/2082.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2082.The_Dennett_Quartet_A_Boxed_Set_of_Brainstorms_Elbow_Room_The_Intentional_Stance_and_Brainchildren 5.00 2
Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology (1980) "One of the most important contributions to thinking about thinking yet written. . . . It is remarkably lucid and well written, refreshing and unpompous."
-- Douglas R. Hofstadter, The New York Review of Books

Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting (1984) "What Dennett ends up with is common sense refined, deepened, and nudged ever so gently toward humane, engaged rationality."
-- George Scialabba, Voice Literary Supplement

The Intentional Stance (1987) How are we able to understand and anticipate each other in everyday life, in our daily interactions? We adopt a stance, Dennett argues, a predictive strategy of interpretation that presupposes the rationality of the people-- or other entities--we hope to understand and predict. "...should do much to silence those biologists who believe that philosophers never have anything useful to say to them."
-- Alun Anderson, Nature

Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds (1998) Thinking and research in cognitive science have broadened considerably since the publication of Daniel Dennetts earlier books with MIT Press. This book, which can be viewed as a kind of sequel to Brainstorms, collects Dennett's essays on the philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence, and cognitive ethology that appeared in relatively inaccessible journals from 1984 to 1996.]]> 1387 3.92 2720 317 1998 6500571 8792130100 9788792130105 0 <![CDATA[Mind and Consciousness: 5 Questions]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6500571-mind-and-consciousness 5.00 1 17888 3.71 76 18 13577 4.19 4721 719 20758 3.83 155 15 2943360 5.00 1 0 476877 3.67 6 1 17914 4.00 78 10 121767 3.27 15 4 222058 4.00 10 2 1387 3.92 2720 317 2009 1021512 0231511949 9780231511940 0 <![CDATA[Neuroscience and Philosophy: Brain, Mind, and Language]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1021512.Neuroscience_and_Philosophy_Brain_Mind_and_Language 4.00 1 211175 3.73 15 2 1387 3.92 2720 317 488477 3.77 26 3 2007 7119390 1417719621 9781417719624 0 <![CDATA[Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7119390-darwin-s-dangerous-idea 3.00 1 1387 3.92 2720 317 1995 6044960 0 <![CDATA[Tipos de Mentes: Rumo a uma Compreensão da Concebe]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1230362747m/6044960.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1230362747s/6044960.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6044960.Tipos_de_Mentes_Rumo_a_uma_Compreens_o_da_Concebe 2.00 1 1387 3.92 2720 317 3600865 2012352898 9782012352896 0 <![CDATA[La diversite des esprits]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3600865.La_diversite_des_esprits 0.0 0 1387 3.92 2720 317 1998 6497848 026251284X 9780262512848 0 <![CDATA[The Crucible of Consciousness: An Integrated Theory of Mind and Brain]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6497848-the-crucible-of-consciousness 0.0 0 From the Foreword:

"Torey's way of putting things sheds new light on just what is going on in the 'computational' brain, since he has to find alternative metaphors to stand in for the now somewhat overworked comparison with computers. Just as poets often find that the constraints of rhyme and meter force them to discover strikingly apt expressions of their thoughts, it turns out that couching a computational theory of the mind in resolutely noncomputational terms pays dividends. There is much to repay readers in this book: to the uninitiated, it is a graceful and wise introduction to many of the central problems and arguments; to the veterans, it is a quite bountiful source of arrestingly different slants on familiar topics."
—Daniel C. Dennett, Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University and author of Sweet Dreams

In The Crucible of Consciousness, Zoltan Torey offers a theory of the mind and its central role in evolution. He traces the evolutionary breakthrough that rendered the brain accessible to itself and shows how the mind-boosted brain works. He identifies what it is that separates the human's self-reflective consciousness from mere animal awareness, and he maps its neural and linguistic underpinnings. And he argues, controversially, that the neural technicalities of reflective awareness can be neither algorithmic nor spiritual—neither a computer nor a ghost in the machine.

The human mind is unique; it is not only the epicenter of our knowledge but also the outer limit of our intellectual reach. Not to solve the riddle of the self-aware mind, writes Torey, goes against the evolutionary thrust that created it. Torey proposes a model that brings into a single focus all the elements that make up the puzzle: how the brain works, its functional components and their interactions; how language evolved and how syntax evolved out of the semantic substrate by way of neural transactions; and why the mind-endowed brain deceives itself with entelechy-type impressions.

Torey first traces the language-linked emergence of the mind, the subsystem of the brain that enables it to be aware of itself. He then explores this system: how consciousness works, why it is not transparent to introspection, and what sense it makes in the context of evolution.

The "consciousness revolution" and the integrative focus of neuroscience have made it possible to make concrete formerly mysterious ideas about the human mind. Torey's model of the mind is the logical outcome of this, highlighting a coherent and meaningful role for a reflectively aware humanity.]]> 858763 5.00 1 0 1387 3.92 2720 317 2009 5923782 8449321328 9788449321320 0 <![CDATA[La naturaleza de la conciencia/ The Nature of the Conscience: Cerebro mente y lenguaje/ Brain, Mind, and Language]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5923782.La_naturaleza_de_la_conciencia_The_Nature_of_the_Conscience_Cerebro_mente_y_lenguaje_Brain_Mind_and_Language 0.0 0 211175 3.73 15 2 2715870 0.0 0 0 1387 3.92 2720 317 2008 2051337 3931293408 9783931293406 0 <![CDATA[Mind Revolution. CD- ROM für Windows ab 3.1/95/ Workgroups, Mac Ab 7.1]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2051337.Mind_Revolution_CD_ROM_f_r_Windows_ab_3_1_95_Workgroups_Mac_Ab_7_1 0.0 0 843200 3.94 13842 1859 1387 3.92 2720 317 10991 3.96 5544 506 1996 194217 0521353750 9780521353755 0 <![CDATA[The Tanner Lectures on Human Values]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/194217.The_Tanner_Lectures_on_Human_Values 0.0 0 55589 3.68 346 43 1387 3.92 2720 317 20759 4.08 252 37 1989