| I Am a Strange Loop Contributor(s): Hofstadter, Douglas R. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0465030793 ISBN-13: 9780465030798 Publisher: Basic Books OUR PRICE: $20.89 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2008 Annotation: Hofstadter's long-awaited themes of "G]del, Escher, Bach" is an original and controversial view of the nature of consciousness and identity. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Science | Philosophy & Social Aspects - Philosophy | Mind & Body |
| Dewey: 153 |
| Physical Information: 1.14" H x 6.19" W x 9.08" (1.00 lbs) 436 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks, where does the self come from -- and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, soul, consciousness, I arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the strange loop-a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called I. The I is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. How can a mysterious abstraction be real-or is our I merely a convenient fiction? Does an I exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since G del, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is a moving and profound inquiry into the nature of mind. |