Peter Godfrey-Smith’s Followers (701)

Peter Godfrey-Smith

Born

Australia

Website

http://petergodfreysmith.com

Genre

Philosophy, Science

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I am currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center, CUNY (City University of New York), and Professor of History and Philosophy of Science (half-time) at the University of Sydney.

I grew up in Sydney, Australia. My undergraduate degree is from the University of Sydney, and I have a PhD in philosophy from UC San Diego. I taught at Stanford University between 1991 and 2003, and then combined a half-time post at the Australian National University and a visiting position at Harvard for a few years. I moved to Harvard full-time and was Professor there from 2006 to 2011, before coming to the CUNY Graduate Center. I took up a half-time position in the HPS program at the University of Sydney in 2015.

My main research interest ...more

129 posts
Peter Godfrey-Smith's Blog

Peter Godfrey-Smith isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

130. Another Watcher

Day 3 of the Fly Point dive trip. Another post to frame some photos of octopuses in shallow water.

Heading into the shallows, in a flat seagrassy area, I saw a bit of old pipe that looked like a good octopus den. A big octopus was curled up inside, in a position I associate with females brooding their eggs. Then I realized there was another very large octopus parked right in front, in s

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Peter Godfrey-Smith’s books

Average rating: 3.88 · 33,050 ratings · 3,683 reviews · 20 distinct works • Similar authors

	Other Minds 3.88 avg rating — 28,230 ratings — published 2016 — 53 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind 3.88 avg rating — 2,520 ratings — published 2020 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series) 3.93 avg rating — 1,604 ratings — published 2003 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Living on Earth: Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World 3.54 avg rating — 386 ratings — published 2024 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Philosophy of Biology 3.73 avg rating — 158 ratings — published 2013 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection 4.07 avg rating — 76 ratings — published 2009 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature 4.14 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 1996 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Metazoa / Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds By Peter Godfrey-Smith (Contributor), Metazoa By Peter Godfrey-Smith (Contributor) 4.10 avg rating — 20 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Vivere sulla Terra: La vita, la coscienza e la costruzione del mondo naturale 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Der Krake, das Meer und die Tiefen Ursprünge des Bewusstseins 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Peter Godfrey-Smith (?)

“When you dive into the sea, you are diving into the origin of us all.”
― Peter Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness

17 likes

“Cephalopods are an island of mental complexity in the sea of invertebrate animals. Because our most recent common ancestor was so simple and lies so far back, cephalopods are an independent experiment in the evolution of large brains and complex behavior. If we can make contact with cephalopods as sentient beings, it is not because of a shared history, not because of kinship, but because evolution built minds twice over.”
― Peter Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness

16 likes

“If we want to understand other minds, the minds of cephalopods are the most other of all.”
― Peter Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life

9 likes

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Polls

Which nonfiction book would you like to read with us in June and July? Please vote here.

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson

20 votes, 26.0%

No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in WWII by Robert Weintraub

18 votes, 23.4%

Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels by Deirdre Le Faye

14 votes, 18.2%

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith

14 votes, 18.2%

Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field by John Lewis-Stempel

11 votes, 14.3%

77 total votes

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