Product Description

Combining ideas from philosophy, artificial intelligence, and neurobiology, Daniel Dennett leads the reader on a fascinating journey of inquiry, exploring such intriguing possibilities as: Can any of us really know what is going on in someone elses mind? What distinguishes the human mind from the minds of animals, especially those capable of complex behavior? If such animals, for instance, were magically given the power of language, would their communities evolve an intelligence as subtly discriminating as ours? Will robots, once they have been endowed with sensory systems like those that provide us with experience, ever exhibit the particular traits long thought to distinguish the human mind, including the ability to think about thinking? Dennett addresses these questions from an evolutionary perspective. Beginning with the macromolecules of DNA and RNA, the author shows how, step-by-step, animal life moved from the simple ability to respond to frequently recurring environmental conditions to much more powerful ways of beating the odds, ways of using patterns of past experience to predict the future in never-before-encountered situations. Whether talking about robots whose video-camera eyes give us the powerful illusion that there is somebody in there or asking us to consider whether spiders are just tiny robots mindlessly spinning their webs of elegant design, Dennett is a master at finding and posing questions sure to stimulate and even disturb.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1091485 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

An interesting introduction that would have benefitted from more practical examples
In `Kinds of Minds', Daniel Dennett aims to explore the concept of mind; what is it and where does it come from? And also the ways in which humans are distinct from other animals in terms of the way we process information.
The book is an interesting introduction and aims to challenge preconceptions we may have (especially about the extent to which animals can actually `think'.) I found the arguments persuasive and sympathetic and there is a good reference and further reading section at the back of the book which gives you opportunities to study the subject further.

My only criticism would be that whilst some of the areas of discussion are explained in simple and concrete terms, there are occasions when Dennett seems to forget that he might be writing an introduction to a complex subject. This results in pages and pages of quite complex theory, with a practical example near the end. This is a shame, because you can feel yourself struggling to keep up and having to re-read sections, only to realise that if he had given you the concrete example in the first place you would have understood the point he was trying to make.

This book does raise interesting and thoughtful points and the concluding chapter is great but, wow, this can be tough going!