Record Details

Catalog Search

Search The Catalog



I am a strange loop / Douglas Hofstadter.

Summary:

Hofstadter's long-awaited return to the themes of Gödel, Escher, Bach--an original and controversial view of the nature of consciousness and identity. What do we mean when we say "I"? Can a self, a soul, a consciousness, an "I" arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? This book argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. Deep down, a human brain is a chaotic soup of particles, on a higher level it is a jungle of neurons, and on a yet higher level it is a network of abstractions that we call "symbols." The most central and complex symbol in your brain or mine is the one we both call "I." But how can such a mysterious abstraction be real--or is our "I" merely a convenient fiction?--From publisher description.

Record details

  • ISBN: 0465030785
  • ISBN: 9780465030781
  • ISBN: 0465030793
  • ISBN: 9780465030798
  • Physical Description: xix, 412 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
  • Publisher: New York : Basic Books, [2007]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 377-382) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Preface : an author and his book -- An affable locking of horns -- On souls and their sizes -- This teetering bulb of dread and dream -- The causal potency of patterns -- Loops, goals, and loopholes -- On video feedback -- Of selves and symbols -- The epi phenomenon -- Embarking on a strange-loop safari -- Pattern and provability -- Gödel's quintessential strange loop -- How analogy makes meaning -- On downward causality -- The elusive apple of my "I" -- Strangeness in the "I" of the beholder -- Entwinement -- Grappling with the deepest mystery -- How we live in each other -- The blurry glow of human identity -- Consciousness = thinking -- A courteous crossing of words -- A brief brush with Cartesian egos -- A tango with zombies and dualism -- Killing a couple of sacred cows -- On magnanimity and friendship -- Epilogue : the quandary.
Subject: Self (Philosophy)
Consciousness.
Intellect.
Soul.

Available copies

  • 8 of 8 copies available at NC Cardinal. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at McDowell County Public Library.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 8 total copies.
Sort by distance from:
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Marion Library 153 HOF (Text) 37810434751193 Adult Nonfiction Available -