Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking

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Daniel C. Dennett: Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking (2013, W.W. Norton)

Published Sept. 19, 2013 by W.W. Norton.

ISBN:
978-0-393-08206-7
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4 stars (7 reviews)

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Review of 'Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Another brilliant discussion from Dr. Dennett about consciousness, evolution and free will. 
I don't find the conceit of the intuition pump as compared to a thought experiment, or in some cases, an analogy especially interesting, but it is fascinating and exhilarating to read the discussion from someone who thinks about what he thinks about for a living. I have read Dennett on free will before and sometimes found the intricacies to be beyond me, but chapters 65-73 here, perhaps because of the "intuition pumps" used, were unusually enlightening. Highly recommended.

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Part of the edge of this writing comes from the critical environment in which these topics have been discussed, and to some degree from the author's own ego, which one suspects is large. One possible negative side effect is the chapter entitled "Three species of Goulding" which attacks Stephen Jay Gould's logical errors. Dr. Gould, and his theory of …

Review of 'Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

An intuition pump, in Dennett's sense, is an analogy or metaphor that helps us to think about a harder problem.
For instance imagine a whimsical jailer who goes around while the prisoners are asleep, and unlocks all the doors and leaves them that way for a few hours. Are the prisoners free to escape? The idea is not so much to answer this particular question, but to play with it and use it to help us analyze a more complex problem.

In Intuition Pumps, Dennett introduces several dozen such intuition pumps and other mental tools, as well as some pitfalls (e.g., the seductive analogy that misleads us into accepting the wrong conclusion), forming a good introduction to philosophy for the interested amateur.

He does concentrate on three areas: evolution, consciousness, and free will. Make of this what you will: he might be flogging his personal interests, or he might …

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