Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology (Fortieth Anniversary Edition)

by Daniel C. Dennett

Overview

An anniversary edition of a classic in cognitive science, with a new introduction by the author.

When Brainstorms was published in 1978, the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science was just emerging. Daniel Dennett was a young scholar who wanted to get philosophers out of their armchairs—and into conversations with psychologists, linguists, computer scientists. This collection of seventeen essays by Dennett offers a comprehensive theory of mind, encompassing traditional issues of consciousness and free will. Using careful arguments and ingenious thought experiments, the author exposes familiar preconceptions and hobbling intuitions. The essays are grouped into four sections: “Intentional Explanation and Attributions of Mentality”; “The Nature of Theory in Psychology”; “Objects of Consciousness and the Nature of Experience”; and “Free Will and Personhood.”

This anniversary edition includes a new introduction by Dennett, “Reflections on Brainstorms after Forty Years,” in which he recalls the book's original publication by Harry and Betty Stanton of Bradford Books and considers the influence and afterlife of some of the essays. For example, “Mechanism and Responsibility” was Dennett's first articulation of his concept of the intentional stance; “Are Dreams Experiences?” anticipates the major ideas in his 1991 book Consciousness Explained; and “Where Am I?” has been variously represented in a BBC documentary, a student's Javanese shadow puppet play, and a feature-length film made in the Netherlands, Victim of the Brain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262343732
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	12/15/2017
Series:	The MIT Press
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	440
Sales rank:	831,590
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Daniel C. Dennett is University Professor Codirector of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He is the author of Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds; Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness; Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting; Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness (all published by the MIT Press), From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Mind, and other books.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
I Intentional Explanation and Attributions of Mentality
1 Intentional Systems
2 Reply to Arbib and Gunderson
3 Brain Writing and Mind Reading
II The Nature of Theory in Psychology
4 Skinner Skinned
5 Why the Law of Effect Will Not Go Away
6 A Cure for the Common Code?
7 Artificial Intelligence as Philosophy and as Psychology
III Objects of Consciousness and the Nature of Experience
8 Are Dreams Experiences?
9 Toward a Cognitive Theory of Consciousness
10 Tow Approaches to Mental Images
11 Why You Can't Make a Computer that Feels Pain
IV Free Will and Personhood
12 Mechanism and Responsibility
13 The Abilities of Men and Machines
14 Conditions of Personhood
15 On Giving Libertarians What They Say They Want
16 How to Change Your Mind
17 Where Am I?
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

What People are Saying About This

Noam Chomsky

The problems that Daniel Dennett addresses in his essays are crucial ones for philosophy and contemporary science. With a sure touch and a great deal of insight, he has subjected to analysis questions that lie at, or perhaps just beyond, the frontiers of the scientific study of mind and brain. Dennett's work should help guide progress in the understanding of the profound and troubling issues that have intrigued and perplexed critical minds for many centuries. His work is stimulating and impressive....

From the Publisher

The problems that Daniel Dennett addresses in his essays are crucial ones for philosophy and contemporary science. With a sure touch and a great deal of insight, he has subjected to analysis questions that lie at, or perhaps just beyond, the frontiers of the scientific study of mind and brain. Dennett's work should help guide progress in the understanding of the profound and troubling issues that have intrigued and perplexed critical minds for many centuries. His work is stimulating and impressive. . . .

— Noam Chomsky

Endorsement

The problems that Daniel Dennett addresses in his essays are crucial ones for philosophy and contemporary science. With a sure touch and a great deal of insight, he has subjected to analysis questions that lie at, or perhaps just beyond, the frontiers of the scientific study of mind and brain. Dennett's work should help guide progress in the understanding of the profound and troubling issues that have intrigued and perplexed critical minds for many centuries. His work is stimulating and impressive....

—Noam Chomsky