Consciousness Explained

Oct 10, 2024 11:22 AM

Author:Daniel C. Dennett

This book revises the traditional view of consciousness by claiming that Cartesianism and Descartes' dualism of mind and body should be replaced with theories from the realms of neuroscience, psychology and artificial intelligence. What people think of as the stream of consciousness is not a single, unified sequence, the author argues, but "multiple drafts" of reality composed by a computer-like "virtual machine". Dennett considers how consciousness could have evolved in human beings and confronts the classic mysteries of consciousness: the nature of introspection, the self or ego and its relation to thoughts and sensations, and the level of consciousness of non-human creatures.

Reviews

A warmly intelligent introduction to Nietzsche

—— William T. Vollmann , New York Time Book Review

A refined, an intellectually ingenious, and a very civilised discussion of the possible importance of sexual selection for mental evolution

—— John Constable, Cambridge University , Psychology, Evolution, and Gender

Entertaining and wide-ranging

—— Nerve

Flies in the face of evolutionary orthodoxy - proposed by Stephen Jay Gould and others - which suggests that cultures evolve on their own, separate from the evolution of the human mind

—— Observer

Thoughtful, witty and vividly written

—— Richard Dawkins

designed to help people thrive during periods of change

—— Sunday Times

a motivational book to help you deal with change in your life

—— Guardian

Effortlessly, elegantly, Tom Wolfe bestrode both fiction and non-fiction… a style at once objective, subjective, and hallucinatory

—— Andy Martin , Independent

[Tom Wolfe’s] gleeful use of punctuation and italics, along with entertaining asides and neologisms that often quickly cemented themselves into the English lexicon, helped Wolfe stand out from other journalists

—— Guardian

[Wolfe] made literature fun and bores don’t like fun

—— Freddy Gray , The Catholic Herald

A day-glo book, illuminating, merry, surreal!

—— The Washington Post

Tom Wolfe is a groove and a gas. Everyone should send him money and other fine things. Hats off to Tom Wolfe!

—— Terry Southern

Not simply the best book on the hippies, it is the essential book... The pushing, ballooning heart of the matter... Vibrating dazzle!

—— The New York Times

An American Classic

—— Newsweek

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