The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul - Softcover

9780553345841: The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul
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Brilliant, shattering, mind-jolting, The  Mind's I is a searching, probing nook--a  cosmic journey of the mind--that goes deeply into  the problem of self and 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 and Princess Ineffable, her circuits  glowing read and 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.

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Review:
Ever wondered who you are? Who you really are? This collection of writings and reflections by some of today's most notable thinkers is designed to enliven this most central, and most baffling, question in the philosophy of mind. In some ways, the questions posed and bantered about in this book are at the heart of all philosophical reasoning. They are the ultimate questions about the self. The Mind's I contains an astonishing variety of approaches to answering the question, "Who am I?" Between the covers of this book one encounters the literary erudition of Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges alongside the analytic rigor of John Searle. There are sophisticated metaphorical pieces (such as "The Princess Ineffabelle" by Polish philosopher and writer Stanislaw Lem), intriguing dialogues (like Raymond Smullyan's "Is God a Taoist?"), and serious but engaging philosophical essays from a host of thinkers (see Thomas Nagel's "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?").

Editors Hofstadter and Dennett--leading lights in the study of cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and the philosophy of mind--follow each selection with a short reflection designed to elaborate on their main themes. The Mind's I admirably broadens their fields to a more general audience. The book's essays are grouped into six categories, each successively raising the philosophical stakes by introducing new levels of complexity. Ultimately, one confronts some of the thorniest questions in modern philosophy here, such as the nature of free will, our place in the metaphysical world, and the possibility of genuine artificial intelligence. The book closes with a playful and perplexing piece by Robert Nozick, an adequate summation to The Mind's I. He writes, "Perhaps God has not decided yet whether he has created, in this world, a fictional world or a real one.... Which decision do you hope for?" --Eric de Place

From the Back Cover:
"Ever since David Hume declared in the 18th century that the Self is only a heap of perceptions, the poor Ego has been in a shaky conditions indeed...Mind and consciousness becomes dispensable items in our accounts of reality, ghosts in the bodily machine...Yet there are indications here and there that the tide may be tuming...and the appearance of The Mind's I, edited by Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett, seems a welcome sign of change."--William Barrett, The New York Times Book Review

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  • PublisherBantam
  • Publication date1985
  • ISBN 10 0553345842
  • ISBN 13 9780553345841
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages512
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780465030910: The Mind's I: Fantasies And Reflections On Self & Soul

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ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780465030910
Publisher: Basic Books, 2001
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  • 9780465046249: The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul

    Basic ..., 1981
    Hardcover

  • 9780553014129: The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul

    Bantam, 1982
    Softcover

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