Overview

How did we come to have minds? For centuries, poets, philosophers, psychologists, and physicists have wondered how the human mind developed its unrivaled abilities. Disciples of Darwin have explained how natural selection produced plants, but what about the human mind? In From Bacteria to Bach and Back, Daniel C. Dennett builds on recent discoveries from biology and computer science to show, step by step, how a comprehending mind could in fact have arisen from a mindless process of natural selection. A crucial shift occurred when humans developed the ability to share memes, or ways of doing things not based in genetic instinct. Competition among memes produced thinking tools powerful enough that our minds don’t just perceive and react, they create and comprehend. An agenda-setting book for a new generation of philosophers and scientists, From Bacteria to Bach and Back will delight and entertain all those curious about how the mind works.

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9780393355505

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Reviews

[The] best scientific-philosophical approach to understanding how consciousness evolved...A wonderful book that will shape and drive thinking for years to come. -- Shane O'Mara - Times Higher Education Dennett is always good company...He writes with wit and elegance. -- Thomas Nagel - New York Review of Books This is a book to read and relish and then read again. -- Michael S. Gazzaniga - Wall Street Journal Readers will find their minds enriched with many powerful thinking tools. -- Economist If you have not encountered [Dennett's] work, you surely should...very few contemporary thinkers have supplied us with so many 'thinking tools.'...Dennett's book is astonishingly rich and will introduce you to most of the key ideas in the terrain he strides energetically across. -- Adam Zeman - Standpoint A subtle and interesting argument. -- Stephen Rose - Guardian Encyclopedic knowledge of both the history of and the latest thinking in philosophy, evolutionary biology, psychology, and computer science. -- Christopher Beha - Harper's Brave and bracing. -- Oliver Moody - The Times

Daniel Dennett has written an absolute firecracker of a book, one revisiting in depth and breadth the central theme of his life's work-understanding and explaining how we are conscious.... Dennett's language is wonderfully robust, and reads as if he is carrying on an argument with both himself and the engaged, but somewhat skeptical, reader. The writing is by turns humorous, wry and profound. It is dotted with brilliant phrasing. It is an exhilarating read; this book deserves to be taken deeply seriously as the best scientific-philosophical approach to understanding how consciousness evolved.... A wonderful book that will shape and drive thinking for years to come. -- Shane O'Mara - Times Higher Education If you have not encountered [Dennett's] work, you surely should ... very few contemporary thinkers have supplied us with so many `thinking tools.' ... Dennett's book is astonishingly rich and will introduce you to most of the key ideas in the terrain he strides energetically across. -- Adam Zeman - Standpoint Brave and bracing. -- Oliver Moody - The Times Encyclopedic knowledge of both the history of and the latest thinking in philosophy, evolutionary biology, psychology, and computer science. -- Christopher Beha - Harper's A subtle and interesting argument. -- Stephen Rose - Guardian [Ties] together 50 years of thinking about where minds come from and how they work.... Dennett has earned his reputation as one of today's most readable, intellectually nimble and scientifically literate philosophers, as this subtle, clever book shows.... Immensely instructive and pleasurable. -- Nature If you have not encountered [Dennett's] work, you surely should . . . very few contemporary thinkers have supplied us with so many `thinking tools.' . . . . Dennett's book is astonishingly rich and will introduce you to most of the key ideas in the terrain he strides energetically across. -- Adam Zeman - Standpoint Readers will find their minds enriched with many powerful thinking tools. -- Economist This is a book to read and relish and then read again. -- Michael S. Gazzaniga - Wall Street Journal Dennett is always good company.... He writes with wit and elegance. -- Thomas Nagel - New York Review of Books

If you have not encountered [Dennett's] work, you surely should . . . very few contemporary thinkers have supplied us with so many 'thinking tools.' . . . . Dennett's book is astonishingly rich and will introduce you to most of the key ideas in the terrain he strides energetically across.--Adam Zeman A subtle and interesting argument.--Stephen Rose This is a book to read and relish and then read again.--Michael S. Gazzaniga Readers will find their minds enriched with many powerful thinking tools. Encyclopedic knowledge of both the history of and the latest thinking in philosophy, evolutionary biology, psychology, and computer science.--Christopher Beha Brave and bracing.--Oliver Moody Dennett is always good company.... He writes with wit and elegance.--Thomas Nagel [Ties] together 50 years of thinking about where minds come from and how they work.... Dennett has earned his reputation as one of today's most readable, intellectually nimble and scientifically literate philosophers, as this subtle, clever book shows.... Immensely instructive and pleasurable. If you have not encountered [Dennett's] work, you surely should ... very few contemporary thinkers have supplied us with so many 'thinking tools.' ... Dennett's book is astonishingly rich and will introduce you to most of the key ideas in the terrain he strides energetically across.--Adam Zeman Daniel Dennett has written an absolute firecracker of a book, one revisiting in depth and breadth the central theme of his life's work--understanding and explaining how we are conscious.... Dennett's language is wonderfully robust, and reads as if he is carrying on an argument with both himself and the engaged, but somewhat skeptical, reader. The writing is by turns humorous, wry and profound. It is dotted with brilliant phrasing. It is an exhilarating read; this book deserves to be taken deeply seriously as the best scientific-philosophical approach to understanding how consciousness evolved.... A wonderful book that will shape and drive thinking for years to come.--Shane O'Mara

A subtle and interesting argument. -- Stephen Rose - The Guardian Illuminating and insightful. . . . [Dennett] makes a convincing case, based on a rapidly growing body of experimental evidence, that a materialist theory of mind is within reach. . . . His ideas demand serious consideration. -- Publishers' Weekly If you have not encountered [Dennett's] work, you surely should . . . very few contemporary thinkers have supplied us with so many `thinking tools.' . . . . Dennett's book is astonishingly rich and will introduce you to most of the key ideas in the terrain he strides energetically across. -- Adam Zeman - Standpoint In From Bacteria to Bach and Back, his eighteenth book (thirteenth as sole author), Dennett presents a valuable and typically lucid synthesis of his worldview . . . . Dennett is always good company . . . . he writes with wit and elegance . . . . distinctive. -- Thomas Nagel - The New York Review of Books A supremely enjoyable, intoxicating work, tying together 50 years of thinking about where minds come from and how they work. . . . Dennett has earned his reputation as one of today's most readable, intellectually nimble and scientifically literate philosophers, as this subtle, clever book shows . . . . immensely instructive and pleasurable. -- Nature

Author Information

Daniel C. Dennett (1942–2024) was University Professor Emeritus at Tufts University and the author of numerous books, including Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, Breaking the Spell, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, and Consciousness Explained.

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