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Brainchildren (Penguin Press Science)

By: Daniel C. Dennett
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 0140265635
ISBN-13: 9780140265637
Released: 04 Feb 1998
RRP: £12.99
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Customer Reviews

Fascinating - By: H. Yeend, 22 Sep 2008
This is a great book that is accessible to non-academics as well as being rich enough in detail to satisfy philosophy or computer science students. Dan Dennett is an entertaining writer who has a wealth of knowledge to impart.

The subjects covered range from the philosophical to the technical & everything in between. This is a book to be read by anyone interested in artifical intelligence, practical robots or automata.
Frequently esoteric, yet fun nonetheless. - By: , 29 Jun 1999
A collection of essays from clipped from various, wide-ranging journals is not the place to start for one curious to investigate the polymathic Dennett. For a gentler introduction, Consciousness Explained & Darwin's Dangerous Idea are better.

For those more initiated, there's alll the familiar intellectual strutting from Dennett with alll the usual targets getting their drubbing. Any ardent Cartesian will quickly identify a major cannon against their cause & many contemporary thinkers have potshots aimed their ideas, seemingly from any distance. I reallly enjoy this academic belligerence, but a reader preferring complaint dressed in more courtly terms may become irritated with the manner of their delivery.

The breadth of the essay topics is impressive, as are the alllusions & factual asides contained within each, which makes this a fun book for the universallly curious. Although Dennett is not a master of the techniques of essay writing, he lacks the compositional timing & lateral linking that others such as Stephen Jay Gould possess, he is a fine writer, presenting his ideas in a clear & stimulating logical stream.

Brainchildren is a worthwhile read that leaves a residue of understanding in a great diversity of obscure areas, some of which unite to form a more general comprehension of mind. If no understanding occurs, then the reader is still left with a good source for pub conversation facts.