I finally got around to reading a long-standing book on my shelf: The Mind's I by Hofstadter and Dennett. This is a philosophical collection of essays, short stories, and excerpts to create a journey through fascinating topics in philosophy of mind. It is the kind of book I love given my background in philosophy. I'd been introduced to nearly all the ideas in my undergraduate curriculum, but I found this book a well-crafted, well-designed overview that captures intellectual curiosity without being bogged down in jargon. It's readable, interspersed with commentary and reviews by the authors. The book contemplates problems like the mind/body dilemma (what is mind, what is body, and how are they related?), artificial intelligence (can computers really think and what would that mean?), personal identity (what makes me me?), consciousness (what does it mean to think and to be self-aware?), and other philosophical conundrums. It's a little dense for the layperson but challenges us to consider ideas I think are central to our being human that we do not otherwise ponder.
Image shown under Fair Use, from goodreads.com.
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