Kinds of Minds - Understanding Consciousness by Daniel Dennett
What kinds of minds are there? Do starfish, amoebas or dogs have minds? What makes human minds so different? Brilliant philosopher and bestselling author Daniel C. Dennett goes back to basics to question whether there is one special phenomenon, sentience, that distinguishes some organisms from others. He discovers how different minds acquire their different powers, and examines the explosive importance of language. Dennett is as lively a reader as he is writer and this audio book adds an extra dimension of clarity and understanding to his beautifully written work.
At the beginning of Kinds of Minds Dennett asks, "What kinds of minds are there? And how do we know?" These two questions--the first ontological, the second epistemological--set the agenda for the book. Intuitions untutored by theory are not capable of answering these questions, Dennett argues, making it necessary to pursue insight from the evolutionary point of view. Accordingly, subsequent chapters are devoted to phylogenetic speculations about agency and intentionality, sensitivity and sentience, and perception and behavior. Particularly charming is the series of squiggly amoebas--the Darwinian, Skinnerian, Popperian, and Gregorian creatures--that illustrates the hierarchy of cognitive power. In the final chapter, Dennett returns to the original two questions, ending not with their answers, but, he hopes, with "better versions of the questions themselves."