Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking

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

It's always a pleasure to read Dennett, even when you disagree with him (as I do about some of what he writes on evolutionary theory, for instance). And this collection really gives the reader a good taste of Dennett's brilliant, witty, insightful writing. Of course, if you are already familiar with his prodigious output, there will be relatively little new here, but it's still nice to get a single place where so many gems are collected for one's reading and thinking pleasure. That said, I still find Dan's treatment of some people and subject matters (Searle, Gould) unnecessarily strident, and perhaps below the standards of intellectual discourse that he himself sets in one of the essays in the book - and this, of course, quite regardless of how uncharitable some of his opponents may or may not have been in turn. Read it, disagree with it, discuss it with friends and colleagues, it will be worth your time.

I found myself flipping back through the pages, looking for the core ideas that interconnected the fairly short chapters. This author definitely did some thinking, way more than average for most academic texts. The ideas were there, so I was not disappointed. This text has some hidden ideas, which is more than what most books can say. Maybe not everyone would find the same ideas, but there were hints of concepts like a 'coherent brain' and 'psychic people' --- but these New-Agey type concepts were selected carefully, and only underpin the more advanced, although less lexical interpretations of the text. The lexical interpretation is perhaps the most major interpretation, and would involve a lot of inferencing and referencing of --- I suppose --- the entire body of reasoning, including all kinds of things that aren't obvious outside of core academia. For reasons like this, this book is not really easy to pick up or put down --- in a good way. I originally assumed this text to be simplistic, with a few good ideas, perhaps original ones. What I came away with was something far different: a real, whole-cloth approach to life, from a real, authentic mind.While some of his opinions are on the abstruse side, and the text certainly seems dense to some if not all readers, like Aristotle, there is cohesiveness and content, in spite of the obstruction. Basically the only thing better than this in philosophy is a book of aphorisms, or perhaps something even more intelligent (or more likely, more concise), if that is possible. I suspect this guy could take some lessons from Strunk & White, but like all philosophers, he's above par for his chosen game. I don't regret reading this book, and that says something. I think I set a high standard, and this text basically exceeded mine.If someone wants a slightly more original core concept, I recommend The Dimensional Philosopher's Toolkit or other books by Nathan Coppedge, but it's a close call. Dr. Dennett may be an easier read for most audiences, and largely comes off as more intelligent, however that might be interpreted. However, Dennett's specialty is the cognitive sciences, which I'm afraid has a kind of liberal-artsy reputation recently. In other words, it doesn't influence logic or metaphysics as directly as it might.That's my critique. Overall, good review, good book, worth reading. Conventional in places (= high marks) to the highly unconventional mind (that is, young, ambitious college-bound people), but original and authentic in its intelligence in general.

Once in a while, I’d bump into a book like this one — a tiny ream of paper that covered major ideas, models or “intuition pumps” in this case — of a highly intelligent individual through her/his entire lifetime.Even though I was extremely reluctant to start the book — I, like most mortals, do consider “90 per cent of philosophy is crap” — I did it anyway since I was curious about who would the famous C. Christensen read and quote. As I proceeded, I found the material wildly interesting. I’d start reading it before beginning my actual working day as a preparation, or let’s say a “mind-opener”.Looking forward to find out more treasures of this caliber!

This book should be in every philosopher's arsenal. It is an accessible read and, in some places, that accessibility disguises the true depth of Dennett's inquiry and conclusions.

Amazing book. With receipt of delivery on time.

Great book just like most of his works. Easy to read and comprehend and most of all useful in improving ones thinking process.

As an introduction to people not familiar with his work it may be OK, but I found it repetitive of previous ideas, just presenting them in a different way.