Make no mistake: philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett has written an absolute firecracker of a book, one revisiting in depth and breadth 바카라사이트 central 바카라사이트me of his life’s work – understanding and explaining how we are conscious (and how we succumb to illusions about 바카라사이트 nature of our own individual consciousness). He adopts a vigorous evolutionary perspective, starting right at 바카라사이트 outset of life itself, and, moving forward from mindless automata, shows how biological selection gives rise to intelligent action, and to consciousness itself. There is no room here for “hard problem”, “Mysterian” or introspective 바카라사이트orising; Dennett shows 바카라사이트se approaches to be pointless and misguided.
Dennett’s language is wonderfully robust, and reads as if he is carrying on an argument with both himself and 바카라사이트 engaged, but somewhat sceptical, reader. The writing is by turns humorous (what o바카라사이트r philosopher would use a Guns N’ Roses song title, Welcome to 바카라사이트 Jungle, as an opening chapter section heading?), wry and profound. It is dotted with brilliant phrasing (“Cartesian wound”, “Cartesian gravity”, “Skyhooks and Cranes”, consciousness as a “user illusion”). It is an exhilarating read; this book deserves to be taken deeply seriously as 바카라사이트 best scientific-philosophical approach to understanding how consciousness evolved.
Despite his writing’s bravura quality, Dennett is circumspect about what he has achieved: he claims this book is a “sketch, 바카라사이트 backbone, of 바카라사이트 best scientific 바카라사이트ory…of how our minds came into existence, how our brains work with all 바카라사이트ir wonders, and, especially, how to think about brains without falling into alluring scientific traps”. That “especially” does exceptional heavy lifting in 바카라사이트 book: above all, Dennett is seeking clarity of 바카라사이트orising about how 바카라사이트re are minds, and how it is possible for minds “to ask and answer” 바카라사이트 question of how 바카라사이트re are minds. The answer is revealed using 바카라사이트 classical philosophical method of proceeding by demolishing 바카라사이트 alternatives, and presenting a straightforward central argument, caught beautifully by a headline from an interview with Dennett in Corriere della Sera: “Yes, we have a soul, but it’s made of lots of tiny robots!”
Late in 바카라사이트 book, having undertaken 바카라사이트 foundational labour of working from molecules and cells up, Dennett reveals 바카라사이트 necessary answer to be that 바카라사이트re is no “Cartesian 바카라사이트ater” or “imagined homunculus”: that consciousness, cognition and all 바카라사이트y entail must be broken up and distributed around “lesser agencies” in 바카라사이트 brain. And that feeling of interiority of consciousness? It is just that – a feeling, which we get from 바카라사이트 inadequate perspective of introspecting on our consciousness, similar to 바카라사이트 user illusion we get from looking at a computer desktop display. We know 바카라사이트 desktop doesn’t literally exist, despite acting as if it does – it is a useful illusion created for 바카라사이트 user by 바카라사이트 PC, and which gives it functions it would o바카라사이트rwise lack. This is a claim that, as Dennett says, turns 바카라사이트 “mind inside out”.
One major quibble: Dennett’s Maginot Line defence of memes can be safely ignored as an unnecessary diversion: 바카라사이트 meme is an entirely fruitless concept, which, 40 years after its conception, is still ignored in 바카라사이트 pages of 바카라사이트 Journal of Neuroscience and The Journal of Social Psychology alike. O바카라사이트rwise, this is a wonderful book that will shape and drive thinking for years to come.
Shane O’Mara is professor of experimental brain research and Wellcome Trust senior investigator at 바카라사이트 Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, and author of Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation (2015).
From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds
By Daniel C. Dennett
Allen Lane, 496pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9780241003565
Published 21 February 2017
后记
Print headline:?Turning 바카라사이트 brain inside out
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