Before talking about the book, i'd like to share my mentally coming into the book which in some way illuminates some reasons to why I was interested in reading it in the first place. One reason is because I believe that learning how to think, conceptualize, and delve into convoluted problems, generally helps one's mental faculties. By putting your mind through profound enigmatic problems it helps train your brain to tackle other non-related problems. This is the reason why for example physicists and philosophers can transition to other fields so easily. Another reason why I read the book is because I've read 2 other books by the same author (i.e. Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Consciousness Explained) and I have high respect for the integrity his work. That being said, Intuition Pumps didn't disappoint and I wholeheartedly endorse this book.
In the first section, Dennett gives you a dozen thinking tools to help make things more salient, such as: misrepresentation, obscured argument, and better ways to avoid misdirection. Some of these tools are very useful, such as Rapoport's Rules (for arguing with someone) and Jootsing (focusing on the simple instead of making things more complicated; think Feynman). Note that these are thinking tools rather than "intuition pumps". An 'intuition pump' is somewhat of a tool itself, one that philosophers often wield with great pride; it's a thinking exercise often in the form of a short story - often figurative - that intends to shed light upon a usually difficult topic, conundrum, or mistake.
Back to the book, Dennett follows up with talking about thinking tools for meaning. In other words, how to think about meaning. In between the 2 chapters on meaning their is an interlude about computers, which i found to be very fascinating. But to summarize - from my limited scope of knowledge on this subject matter - he really does justice in explicating algorithmic processes in such a short time. The Register Assembly Programming (RAP) computer language was really an eye-opener.
For the rest of the book, Dennett takes on really general popular topics, and they are:
Evolution: You'd recognize some (but not all) of the intuition pumps if you read Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and also some of his familiar criticism, especially of Gould. But for 70 pages worth, you can learn a whole lot about evolution and how to think about it.
Consciousness: Likewise you'd recognize some intuition pumps from this section are included in his book Consciousness Explained. Nevertheless, the intuition pumps are great and he really explicates the idea well.
Free Will: I have never read any Dennett related text on free will, but this section is very interesting and so is his conviction. This conviction is incompatibilism: the idea that a determinism is at odds with free will, in there in some way can be both. I believe that in his way - what he was trying to say - is that it doesn't matter if everything is determined or not, because there would be no difference in judgement (just a summary here - details in text) and therefore people shouldn't be exonerated from their actions. I don't know about incompatibilism, and I'm skeptical of it, but this is for sure a anomalous stance the author is taking.
Briefly at the very end Dennett speaks to those interested in becoming philosophers and such. My highest recommendation of this book goes for that audience, but I recommend the text to anyone and everyone. Much more than his previous books (and this is not a knock to those books), this text is definitely digestible for the lay reader. For one with more knowledge, or have read other related Dennett books (like me, recently Consciousness Explained), this text is definitely up to date and engaging. Dennetts tone of writing is conversational, and often times you can catch his wit equipped with a sense of humor - a sign of mastery.
4.6/5
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About the author
Thinking and reasoning
I don’t remember now how I knew Daniel Dennett’s work. It was ae recommendation in Scientific American or Michael Shermer’s comment. The main thing is that if you want to improve and understand the way you reason and think to know about the “intuition pumps” is a good beginning. “No matter how smart you are, you’re smarter if you take the easy ways when they are available”.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2016
- Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2016
- Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2013
Top reviews from other countries
- BenReviewed in Canada on September 21, 2019
This book should be in every philosopher's arsenal.
