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For the academic. Not the casual. A lot of the passages are repeated throughout the book.
I find it interesting that I agree with most of Dennett's conclusions but find many of his arguments misleading and use debater's tricks and a bit of philosophical legerdemain. It starts with the familiar photo experiment where a picture of a kitchen with one door panel painted white like all the others alternating with the panel being painted brown. It often takes subjects 30 seconds to realize the difference. Dennett's gives us three possible choices; yes your qualia were changing in that regi...
Something has been bugging me more and more about Dennett recently. The more I read about consciousness, whether it be from the perspective of neuroscience, philosophy, or psychology, the more I think there is a real question that needs to be answered about qualia. Qualia, the character of subjective experience. The redness of red. The smell of a rose. The feeling of anger or love, and the experience of pain. Chalmers dubbed this the "hard problem of consciousness", referring to the problem of e...
After finishing Consciousness Explained recently and liking it very much, feeling convinced Dennett tackles the issues in the appropriate way, I felt a need to read this one next. Here, Dennett elaborates on his ideas that in order to understand consciousness, we need to take empirical findings seriously and if we do, we realize that there is no room for any center of consciousness in the brain. Rather, we find that activities are spread out over different areas having different functional roles...
While Dennett's magnificent opus "Consciousness Explained" is still the crown jewel of his naturalist take on philosophy, Sweet Dreams is a well constructed follow up, a rebuttle to those who have taken issue with his almost undisputed masterpiece.Dennett's writing is as sharp as ever, but there is something to be said of Sweet Dreams that cannot be said of Consciousness Explained: it is concise. The gift in writing non-fiction is to be able to get a point across simply, and Dennett does that wi...
Sweet Dreams serves as Daniel Dennett's recent follow-up to Consciousness Explained. In both books, he discusses a number of issues currently plaguing the philosophy of mind and primary theories of consciousness. In Sweet Dreams, Dennett revisits many of the same topics not always with the same amount of depth. This text, a compilation of previously published essays and talks given by Dennett after the publication of Consciousness Explained but before 2005, showcases the author's sense of humor
I like reading Dennett generally. This book was alright. Some of the material is repeated however, and my overall sense is that the book ought to be about a half or a third of the size. Dennett's critiques are solid, but the positive theory of conscious to the end was weakly presented in my opinion. It didn't have the solid, well-thought-out, feel that much of his other writing has. It felt incomplete, and as if it could fall to the same style of critique he levels at others. If someone simply w...
Dennett is required reading for those looking forward to uploading "themselves" following singularity. His rejection of dualism and arguments supporting consciousness as a set of features enjoyed by the subject are compelling. As much as I'd like to believe I'm "me" and couldn't be reproduced or experience things in the same way if I were a robot with the same programming, I am supportive of Dennett's materialist approach. I don't know if the "mystery" of consciousness will be solved, but I don'...
It is somewhat like a big party, which is coming to an end, many have gone and those that are still there are sitting down. D. C. Dennett is sitting in his armchair and recounts the evening, for those who will listen. As usual he rummages a lot, talks of the recent news, the last youtube meme, but it illustrates his view, and we wonder with him, about the evening, if it was unique (after all, we were all there!), or if it was just a party, a simple mechanical party.
"colors, such as the luscious yellow you enjoy when you look at a ripe lemon"You can't fool me Zombie Dan, you can stare at luscious lemons all you want, we both know you can't see colors!No, come on, think about it. It's the best explanation why he's like this! I mean see how hard he's trying to not act suspicious, staring at lemons and all that.The book is very well written otherwise, easy and pleasant to read. I'm sure he's a great guy to stare at lemons with. His theory is pure scientism non...
The chapters do overlap in some aspects, and Dennett does have a tendency to repeat himself. I picked up on this probably because I am already somewhat familiar with his stance on consciousness. His thought experiments are powerful, and explanations are succinct and coherent. An enjoyable read. Dennett is analytical, humorous and direct. I very much agree with his philosophical viewpoint.
Great insights! Thanks, Dan!
It appears to me, that many philosophers of mind, cognitive scientists, and others that have some stake in the business of the philosophy of mind or general consciousness studies, just publish the same book over and over again.What I mean by this, is that a philosopher (or whoever), that has a stance on the question of the mind, generally publish a great book explaining their point of view and explain how it is the gospel of the question of the mind and how is dissolves the mind-body problem or
Dennett makes a compelling case against a number of widespread, non-optimistic philosophical objections to the third-person study of consciousness. It comes off as an advertisement for Dennett's long-standing blend of first and third-person study (heterophenomology) for consciousness research.The collection comes recommended for those who already are familiar with the common philosophy of mind objections to mixing science and consciousness research. If you're unfamiliar with some of the classica...
Was a good followup to Consciousness Explained. If you were not convinced by the first book, this book is helpful. It makes some expansions on the original ideas, and covers some of the experiments that have been done since then. It also clarifies some meanings of words that from Dennett's point of view have been confusing since the philosophers were not using the same meanings that the scientists were. It is much more of a reflection on the past and a defense against critics of the first book t...