Not cold reason but a profusion of metaphorical similarities let us understand the world, according to this distended, unfocused treatise on conceptual thought. Cognitive scientists Hofstadter (Gödel, Escher, Bach) and Sander explore the interesting though not startling idea that people rely on analogies drawn from past experience—in words, conversation, cultural assumptions, and ideologies—to make sense of novel situations and discover hidden, abstract commonalities. The authors apply this idea to everything from a child’s generalization from “Mommy” to motherhood to the falling-dominoes analogy drawn during the Vietnam War. They develop some fascinating insights on, for example, the simple analogies underlying Einstein’s theories of relativity, but, unfortunately, the authors lack the good analogist’s nose for concision. More natural history than rigorous scientific analysis, their argument proceeds by cataloging countless analogical specimens and dissecting their meanings at luxuriant length. Never content with a single pithy example where 20 repetitive ones will do, they bludgeon readers with belabored erudition, tiresome overexplication—five pages on the phrase, “Me, too!”—and ponderous rhetorical japes, including a 27-page Socratic dialogue. (“Good grief,—Anna, are you implying that categorization and analogy-making are exactly the same thing?”) The result is an annoyingly high ratio of gratuitous surface detail to essential information. 10 b&w illus. (May 1)
![Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.8.5)
Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking
Narrated by Sean Pratt
Douglas HofstadterUnabridged — 33 hours, 53 minutes
![Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.8.5)
Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking
Narrated by Sean Pratt
Douglas HofstadterUnabridged — 33 hours, 53 minutes
Audiobook (Digital)
Related collections and offers
Overview
Editorial Reviews
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
How do we know what we know? How do we know at all? With an enjoyable blend of hard science and good storytelling, Hofstadter and French psychologist Sander tackle these most elusive of philosophical matters.... [I]t's worth sticking with [Hofstadter's] long argument, full of up-to-date cognitive science and, at the end, a beguiling look at how the theory of relativity owes to analogy.... First rate popular science: difficult but rewarding.”
Melanie Mitchell, Professor of Computer Science, Portland State University, and author of Complexity: A Guided Tour
Hofstadter and Sander's book is a wonderful and insightful account of the role of analogy in cognition. Immensely enjoyable, with a plethora of fascinating examples and anecdotes, this book will make you understand your own thought processes in a wholly new way. It's analogy all the way down!”
Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Stuff of Thought
I am one of those cognitive scientists who believe that analogy is a key to explaining human intelligence. This magnum opus by Douglas Hofstadter, who has reflected on the nature of analogy for decades, and Emmanuel Sander, is a milestone in our understanding of human thought, filled with insights and new ideas.”
Gerald Holton, Professor of Physics and History of Science, Emeritus, Harvard University
Hofstadter and Sander's book starts with two audacious goals: to show that none of us can think a minute without using a variety of analogies, and that becoming aware of this fact can help us think more clearly. Then, patiently and with humor, the authors prove their claims across the whole spectrum, from everyday conversation to scientific thought processes, even that of Einstein.”
Nancy J. Nersessian, Professor of Cognitive Science, Georgia Institute of Technology, and author of Creating Scientific Concepts
Placing analogy at the core of cognition Hofstadter and Sander provide a persuasive answer to the question what is thought?' Analogy is the mechanism underlying the myriad instances of concept formation and categorization we perform throughout any day, whether unconscious or explicit, without which there would be no thought. They mount a compelling case through analysis of a wealth of insightfulimaginative and realexemplars, from everyday thinking to the highest achievements of the human mind, which are sure to persuade a broad range of readers.”
Longlisted for the 2014 PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
Science
Surfaces and Essences warrants a place alongside Gödel, Escher, Bach and major recent treatments of human cognition. Analogy is not the endpoint of understanding, but its indispensable beginning.”
Nature
Lucid and, page for page, a delight to read.... [Surfaces and Essences contains] gems of insight.”
Wall Street Journal
"Clear, lively, and personal."
Globe and Mail (Canada)
Knowing what makes a duck a bird and what makes a plane not a bird may not seem like very profound mental featsbut Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander see such cognitive connections as part of an extraordinarily profound process.... Be prepared to become hyper-conscious of the myriad of analogies one makes every moment of every day.... The end result is a book that is ambitious and provocative.”
Booklist, starred review
A revelatory foray into the dynamics of the mind.”
Library Journal
Like Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize-winning Godel, Escher, Bach, this work executes, from a very complex thesis, an understanding by general readers while also appealing to specialists in philosophy of mind and cognitive science.
How do we know what we know? How do we know at all? With an enjoyable blend of hard science and good storytelling, Hofstadter (I Am a Strange Loop, 2007, etc.) and French psychologist Sander tackle these most elusive of philosophical matters. The authors write that "each concept in our mind owes its existence to a long succession of analogies made unconsciously over many years, initially giving birth to the concept and continuing to enrich it over the course of our lifetime." The word "band," for instance, can mean many things, from an invisible set of wavelengths to a wedding ring to the Beatles; each of those designations forms by analogy to the others, a process made more complex by virtue of the fact that words, even the most ordinary of them, "don't have just two or three but an unlimited number of meanings." Given all that, it is hardly surprising that one man's meat is another's poison--and therein lies the complement to analogy formation, "the very lifeblood of cognition," namely classification or categorization, with the ancillary process of abstraction (whence, for instance, the category "non-square rectangle," containing eight subcategories of rhombuses, parallelograms and so forth). Hofstadter's works are never easy reading, and this one is no different, chockablock full of words such as "zeugmaticity" and "factorization" and with plenty of math to daunt the less than numerate. Yet it's worth sticking with his long argument, full of up-to-date cognitive science and, at the end, a beguiling look at what the theory of relativity owes to analogy. Certainly not for all readers, but first-rate popular science: difficult but rewarding.
Product Details
BN ID: | 2940170289738 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Ascent Audio |
Publication date: | 04/30/2013 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
Videos
![](/static/img/products/pdp/default_vid_image.gif)