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Daniel C. Dennett

Consciousness Explained Hardcover – October 1, 1991

by Daniel C. Dennett (Author), Paul Weiner (Illustrator)

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Advances a new theory of consciousness based on insights gleaned from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence, and clears away obsolete myths about the process of thinking in conscious beings

Print length

511 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Little Brown & Co
Publication date

October 1, 1991
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0316180653
ISBN-13

978-0316180658
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Tufts University cognitive scientist Dennett claims to have developed a major new theory of consciousness, yet his view of the brain as a massive parallel processor is a familiar one. What is different in his counter-intuitive theory is the claim that human consciousness, rather than being "hard-wired" into the brain's innate machinery, is more like software "running on the brain's parallel hardware" and is largely a product of cultural evolution. Author of Brainstorms , Dennett leads the adventurous gently through thought experiments, metaphors and diagrams in a treatise keyed to the serious, diligent reader. He presents a plausible evolutionary scenario of how consciousness could have emerged from the hominid brain. Dennett's audacious, tantalizing foray into the mind's inner workings ties up loose ends at the interface of cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and biology.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Maybe not explained. But explored, analyzed, examined from an extraordinarily rich perspective. Here, as in other philosophical work (Elbow Room, 1984, etc.), the Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts Univ. states that he aims to dethrone the ``Cartesian Theater'' of the mind--that central screen with its implied ``Central Meaner'' who attends to the ``contents of consciousness'': the ghost in the machine with all its implied infinite regress and mind/brain dichotomy. Instead, Dennett posits ``multiple drafts'' of the real world, the product of parallel processing of perceptual and cognitive subsystems compiled by independent ``demons'' vying with each other, with now one or another gaining ascendancy--the whole a form of ``pandemonium'' that results in consciousness. In arriving at this model, Dennett reviews the extensive literature of neuroscience, artificial intelligence, neurology, cognitive psychology, speech and language studies, thought experiments, and the philosophical tradition itself. This discourse is well worth the price of admission to Dennett's own theater of the brain: He is a gifted expositor with a marvelous sense of humor, and, typical of philosophers, ever eager to persuade, answer the reader's objectives, and strike down rival theories. Does he succeed? Not completely. One suspects that metaphors based on artificial intelligence, ``virtual'' machines, and computer technology are just this culture's mind-set at this time. Dennett also pays scant attention to the role of emotions (in comparison to Robert Ornstein, see below), nor for that matter to the emerging concept that the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems should be considered in any schema of consciousness. Nevertheless, Dennett's analysis is so often brilliant, so witty, and so informed by contemporary culture as to make pleasurable the reading of what is truly a complex and demanding text. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little Brown & Co; 1st edition (October 1, 1991)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 511 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316180653
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316180658
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #623,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,223 in Consciousness & Thought Philosophy
- #51,815 in Science & Math (Books)

Customer Reviews:
472 ratings

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Jon Waters

Dennett's Consciousness Described

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2021

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Many contemporary thinkers consider the nature of human consciousness to be the grandest mystery in the universe. What exactly is it and why do we humans have it? Isn’t it impossible to explain scientifically how we have the mental moment of willing that is at the heart of our free will? Or the mental moment that vividly captures our sensation of redness or our idea of a horse? Dan Dennett’s response to such rhetorical questions is No, we actually can scientifically investigate the nature of our consciousness, and his seminal Consciousness Explained (1991) is devoted, as far as possible at this stage of the science of cognitive psychology, to performing this task. The book is a philosophical work, not psychological, and thus is better titled Consciousness Described in that Dennett examines human consciousness without resorting to notions that the essence of our consciousness is an ineffable realm of private, indivisible mental experiences that intrinsically defies scientific analysis.

If you wish to read an earlier, more overtly technical work by one of today’s premier philosophers in the philosophy of mind and philosophy of science, then Consciousness Explained is just your cup of tea. But understand that at places it is something of a hard slog, e.g., his ‘Orwellian’ vs. ‘Stalinist’ versions of the origin of mental contents when discussing Libet’s famous reaction-time study (in the early chapter titled ‘Time and Experience’), or his comparison of the brain’s activity to a Universal Turing Machine (in the middle chapter titled ‘The Architecture of the Human Mind’), or his analysis of the psychological phenomena of ‘temporal anomalies’ and 'blindsight’ in other chapters, etc. Even so, it’s well worth the effort to push through any sections that seem to require too much technical background in philosophy to Dennett’s concluding chapter aptly titled ‘Consciousness Imagined.’ A helpful supplemental work that is much shorter and substantially less technical is Dennett's Kinds of Minds (1996), subtitled "Toward an Understanding of Consciousness," in the Science Masters Series, written for the science-minded general public.

4 people found this helpful

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Machy Avelli

Profound book!

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2019

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Highly recommended. The principles of consciousness should not be taken for granted. Gained a new perspective on life after reading this great book.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Brilliant foundation for thinking on consciousness

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2019

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This brilliant book by Dennett, one of the best philosophers of our age, will recreate the way you think about consciousness and build a strong foundation for a scientific, rational explanation of it, inspired by a perfect blend of neuroscience, computer science, psychology and linguistics.
Most of us think of the conscious-self as a decision-maker, a driver of the train of thought. This image is shattered by convincing the reader that there is not a single line of continuous "train" of thought and there is no central point where "it all comes together" . There are multiple inputs, little particles of quasi-narratives, coming from different parts of the brain with different agendas and competing with each other to make their agenda "win", being written and rewritten over and over again in the process.
This theory (hastily summarized here by me) may seem counter-intuitive and maybe even outrageous at first, but the author does his best in slowly chipping away at the established beliefs about consciousness such as the Cartesian Theater and convincing the reader at least to have a new, more rational perspective.
I was also delighted to see that my own recent theories on consciousness are endorsed here. So I may actually be a bit biased in giving this book a perfect 5-star rating. But it deserves absolutely nothing less than a 4 out of 5 for anyone interested in explaining consciousness.

13 people found this helpful

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Karthik Sekar

Ok book. Some highlights but way too long

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2018

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I enjoyed roughly the first 1/3 of this book. The ideas were fresh for someone not in the field, and I think Dan explains key features of consciousness quite well including debunking the Cartesian Theater paradigm. The book is too long. It should be about 1/4 to 1/3 of the length. Dan often takes a simple point and draws it out with flowery, long-winded writing. I found myself exclaiming, "get to the point already" multiple times. I was getting so frustrated that I rifled through the last 1/3 of the book or so.

17 people found this helpful

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Lee Tae Hee

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2018

Excellent!

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2019

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Very thorough, with lots of different citations that you can explore if you'd like. I appreciate Dennett's modest and realistic philosophical approach to the subject. It's quite long, so it can take a while to finish, but definitely worth it.

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Giuseppe Baldi-Castro

Haven't finished it yet but love it so far.

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2013

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This is the first book by Daniel Dennett that I've purchased or read. I love the other works by the other "4 horsemen" (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris) so I wanted to read Dennett. I haven't finished it yet but it's a great read so far and I look forward to reading more Dennett in the future.

2 people found this helpful

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mary suffern

Great book, good value

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2016

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Very interesting book, definitely worth the read for anyone interested in the more abstract/ philosophical view of consciousness

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

tiddles

Very slow at getting to the point - Lots of waffle, very few facts

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2020

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Gave up after 50 pages as I found the level of meandering to get to the point incredibly frustrating. Its probably ok if you like long stories and being persuaded, but not if you want succinct facts and a logical structure.

Shame as I enjoyed listening to the author talk on a Radio 4 documentary but this book was hard work for all the wrong reasons. Not because it was too technical - I wish it were.

4 people found this helpful

Michael Hill

Hard going and complex terminology make this a tough, if worthwhile, read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 28, 2017

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Very hard going. Lots of complex terminology. I've a science background (Physics degree) but I found this challenging and need to read it again with a dictionary handy to get the best out of it. The insights I gained were interesting, but I'm sure I'll benefit from re-reading it more slowly and carefully.

5 people found this helpful

GH

Conciousness not explained.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 2, 2019

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Conciousness not explained.

9 people found this helpful

Jammsbro

A superior tome.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 23, 2014

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Dennet has written one of the most interesting, infomative and compelling books I've read in years. Be careful though, you need to be alert when reading this as Dennet doesn't kid gloves the text. His sxentence structure and style of writing is both complex and brilliant.

A fascinating read.

One person found this helpful

David Song

Consciousness dissected, described, but still not explained

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2008

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This rather long and sometimes rambling book achieves at least two thirds of what I expected. Dennett completely demolishes the Cartesian Dualism model, showing through anecdote and experiment that ideas of a separate mind and body are completely out of touch with reality.
A large portion of the book is dedicated to dismantling ideas that are built on this model, I found the non-linear, revisionist perception of time to be one of the most powerful and thought provoking revelations.
Drawing from many fields of science (computing, psychology, neurology and evolutionary biology to name a few) he then goes on to describe his alternative model for consciousness. His multiple drafts theory is empirical, making falsifiable scientific predictions and I believe his description to be an accurate one.

The book is sometimes quite difficult to follow, philosophy is rarely an easy read but I've come to expect popular science writers to speak plainly, where Dawkins coins snappy and self-explanatory words such as "meme" or "concestor" Dennett's "heterophenomenology" is a nine syllable monster. Also it is not a riveting read, it has taken me almost a year to finally finish this book. I enjoyed the experiments, anecdotes, evolutionary biology and computer science much more than the reams of prelude and philosophical reasoning. In my opinion it would have been better as two books, one a highly technical exploration of the philosophy of mind and another popular science for the layman. I would have enjoyed the latter much more.

Finally I think that the title is misleading, it did transform my understanding of human consciousness but it raised as many new questions as it answered. I am no closer to understanding what consciousness is, what it means to be, or whether consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe or an emergent pattern in matter. Perhaps "Consciousness Described" would have been a more fitting title.

50 people found this helpful

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Consciousness Explained Hardcover – October 1, 1991

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