''Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology'' is a 1978 book by American philosopher

Daniel Dennett Daniel Clement Dennett III (born March 28, 1942) is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields rel ...

. The book is a collection of seventeen essays in which Dennett reflects on the early achievements of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

to develop his ideas on

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

theory of mind In psychology, theory of mind refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them (that is, surmising what is happening in their mind). This includes the knowledge that others' mental states may be different fro ...

, and

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to a ...

Reception

Douglas Hofstadter Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American scholar of cognitive science, physics, and comparative literature whose research includes concepts such as the sense of self in relation to the external world, consciousness, an ...

, writing in the ''

New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

'', praised ''Brainstorms'', calling it "one of the most important contributions to thinking about thinking yet written".

John Haugeland John Haugeland (; March 13, 1945 – June 23, 2010) was a professor of philosophy, specializing in the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, phenomenology, and Heidegger. He spent most of his career at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by ...

reviewed ''Brainstorms'' for the journal ''

Philosophy of Science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ulti ...

'' where he called it "philosophically important and delightfully written", though he criticised Dennett's arguments about morality. Gilbert Harman, writing in ''

The Philosophical Review ''The Philosophical Review'' is a quarterly journal of philosophy edited by the faculty of the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University and published by Duke University Press (since September 2006). Overview The journal publishes original ...

'', called ''Brainstorms'' "brilliant". Robert Cummins wrote in ''Philosophical Topics'' that ''Brainstorms'' is "important and good" and called it "the most entertaining bit of non-fiction I've read in a long while."

References

''Brainstorms'' – MIT CogNet

External links

1981 non-fiction books Books by Daniel Dennett Cognitive science literature Analytic philosophy literature Essay collections Philosophy essays MIT Press books {{philo-essay-stub