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Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
- Narrated by: Jeff Crawford
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
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Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
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Summary
Over a storied career, Daniel C. Dennett has engaged questions about science and the workings of the mind. His answers have combined rigorous argument with strong empirical grounding. And a lot of fun. Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking offers seventy-seven of Dennett’s most successful “imagination-extenders and focus-holders” meant to guide you through some of life’s most treacherous subject matter: evolution, meaning, mind, and free will.
With patience and wit, Dennett deftly deploys his thinking tools to gain traction on these thorny issues while offering listeners insight into how and why each tool was built. Alongside well-known favorites like Occam’s Razor and reductio ad absurdum lie thrilling descriptions of Dennett’s own creations: Trapped in the Robot Control Room, Beware of the Prime Mammal, and The Wandering Two-Bitser. Ranging across disciplines as diverse as psychology, biology, computer science, and physics, Dennett’s tools embrace in equal measure light-heartedness and accessibility as they welcome uninitiated and seasoned listeners alike.
As always, his goal remains to teach you how to “think reliably and even gracefully about really hard questions.” A sweeping work of intellectual seriousness that’s also studded with impish delights, Intuition Pumps offers intrepid thinkers - in all walks of life - delicious opportunities to explore their pet ideas with new powers.
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What listeners say about Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 27-08-17
Not about tools for thinking
This book is less about tools for thinking and more about Dennett's favourite topics and his thought experiments around it. It's not a book about thinking, it s book with thinking in it.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Thomas
- 02-11-13
Excellent Tools For Thinking
If you could sum up Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking in three words, what would they be?
Geeky, Detailed, A-ha
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
To long for one sitting. I think it should be read with time to reflect on chapters, especially as the tools become more specific at the end of the book.
Any additional comments?
It was very well narrated but I would have loved it to have been read by the author.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- dhatt
- 02-09-17
Useless for reference
The chapters are titled by number, so going back to listen to certain concepts again is harder than it should be.
Dennett's style is arrogant and long winded, often explaining a thought experiment (which he renames "intuition pump") at great length, to then fail at putting it in the context of the original problem.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Yomi
- 08-03-17
not as good as "Consciousness Explained"
I was blown away by "consciousness explained" that I thought of listening to everything DCD wrote.
I expected a book on how to put together intuition pumps, but this is book is more about discussing or debunking a series already set pumps, a few of which are already covered in that brilliant earlier book.
it seems like it is more aimed at philosophy students, so while it is a good book, it is not what I thought it was.
maybe I'll have better luck with "from bacteria to Bach"
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- RegencyAddict
- 02-02-21
Dreadful narration
This was so painful I couldn't finish it.
The narrator is grating.
The content just seems so egotistical and I found it very hard to follow. It wasn't what I expected at all and when concepts are introduced (often with made up names), there's no time to grasp them before some anecdote is sprinkled in. I haven't got very far.
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