Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness

Although I do not necessarily agree with all that Dennett stated in this book, I have to say that he stated it exceptionally well. This was an accessible, high level philosophical book detailing the conception of animal minds vs. human minds. Each philosophical concept he put forward he carefully defined and explained with often amusing examples.

The ideas that he came up with himself (i.e. The Tower of Generate and Test, mamataxis, etc.) were novel and interesting without being too difficult to grasp. I enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Although the book was dense in its content, it never strayed too far from what is easily grasped with a bit of mental effort. I'd recommend this alongside Species of Mind which show more addresses several small flaws in some conclusions that he draws. show less

Definitely able and interesting, and a better place than most for someone to begin to explore the problem of what makes a creature a "thinking," and thus a morally cognizable entity. I did think he ended rather abruptly, right as he picks up momentum on the question of pain and suffering in animals. For myself, the most intriguing discovery was his disagreement with Nagel and his classic essay, "What Is It Like To Be a Bat," which I rather enjoyed.

"This book began with a host of questions, and -- since this is a book by a philosopher -- it ends not with the answers, but, I hope, with better versions of the questions themselves." p 168.

One of my favorite non-fiction books ever. It cleared my thoughts about minds by showing me which ideas / questions even make sense or not and why. I have watched many lectures by Dennett before reading the book, so I knew what I was getting into.

This is one book I love to re-read over and over again.

Dennett wasn't exactly young when he wrote this but the energy is palpable. As the introduction states the book is about questions, but they're very good questions, even if by now they've been repeated often.

Nice job by Dennett. This was my first book by him and I very much enjoyed his analysis of mind. His ideas are fascinating and well developed. I'm looking forward to reading some of his other work.

Daniel Dennett tries to explain human conciousness, but leaves me thinking his arguments are just nit-picking over language.

Interesting at times, but ultimately disappointing.

In Kinds of Minds, Daniel C Dennett draws on ideas from philosophy, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and evolutionary biology to investigate the concept of mind. On this exhilarating journey, Dennett sets out the sort of questions that we need to ask if we are to find out what kinds of minds other animals have.