Summary of Daniel C. Dennett's From Bacteria to Bach and Back

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The path leading from the initial assumption that we are physical objects obeying the laws of physics to an understanding of our conscious minds is strewn with difficulties, both empirical and conceptual.

#2 I have often dismissed ideas that seem strange to me at first, but I have found that they are extremely important and have deeply contributed to my view. I am eager to pass on my newfound solutions to the big puzzles about the mind.

#3 The first two billion years of life on Earth were spent optimizing the basic machinery for self-maintenance, energy acquisition, and reproduction. Then, two different prokaryotes, each with its own set of competences and habits, collided.

#4 The Eukaryotic Revolution, which occurred about half a billion years ago, saw the arrival of a bounty of new life forms. The MacCready Explosion, which occurred about 10,000 years ago, saw the arrival of humans and their livestock and pets, who now dominate the planet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822500938

IRB Media

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Insights on Daniel C. Dennett's From Bacteria to Bach and Back

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The path leading from the initial assumption that we are physical objects obeying the laws of physics to an understanding of our conscious minds is strewn with difficulties, both empirical and conceptual.

#2

I have often dismissed ideas that seem strange to me at first, but I have found that they are extremely important and have deeply contributed to my view. I am eager to pass on my newfound solutions to the big puzzles about the mind.

#3

The first two billion years of life on Earth were spent optimizing the basic machinery for self-maintenance, energy acquisition, and reproduction. Then, two different prokaryotes, each with its own set of competences and habits, collided.

#4

The Eukaryotic Revolution, which occurred about half a billion years ago, saw the arrival of a bounty of new life forms. The MacCready Explosion, which occurred about 10,000 years ago, saw the arrival of humans and their livestock and pets, who now dominate the planet.

#5

The MacCready Explosion is the rapid change in population, technology, and intelligence that has occurred on Earth over the past few centuries. It is still going on and picking up speed. We can save the planet or extinguish all life on the planet.

#6

The process of thinking is cyclical, and it begins with a thought. It involves processing that loop around and twists on itself, creating exuberant reactions to reflections to reminders to reevaluations that generate new structures.

#7

Our human minds are strikingly different from the minds of all other species, and they are more powerful and versatile than any other animal’s. However, we are not the Godlike geniuses we sometimes think we are.

#8

The seventeenth-century French scientist and philosopher René Descartes was very impressed with his own mind. He called it his res cogitans, or thinking thing, and he believed that all normal human minds were miraculous. He concluded that minds like his are not material entities, but made of some second kind of stuff that doesn’t have to obey the laws of physics.

#9

Dualism, the belief that the mind and body are separate, is hard to defend. It has been the prevailing opinion of scientists and philosophers for the past century, but it still threatens horrible consequences if we are just huge collections of proteins and other molecules churning away according to the laws of chemistry and physics.

#10

I have spent the last half century trying to explain consciousness to the public, and I have yet to be completely successful. I plan to change that with this book.

#11

There are many forces that distort our imagination and pull us in different directions. We must learn to see these forces and how they affect our thinking, so that we can resist them and exploit them at the same time.

#12

The idea that consciousness is separate from the brain and can be studied separately is a difficult one to accept for many scientists. It is a comfortable position to maintain, and it is tempting to diagnose those who disagree as suffering from one or another ignominious failing.

#13

The problem posed by Cartesian gravity is sometimes called the Explanatory Gap, but the discussions under that name are largely fruitless because the participants fail to see it for what it actually is. They fail to ask how it got that way.

#14

We often underestimate the strength of the forces that distort our imaginations. It is not that we can’t deny them; it is that we won’t deny them, and even try to deny them.

#15

The fact that all the candidates I listed are men is an obvious fact. There have not been any female superstar geniuses yet, and it is unclear why this is. It may be because political oppression, the self-fulfilling sexist prophecies, or media bias has kept women from achieving greatness.

#16