Dennett, D. C. _Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking_. First Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. # Progressive Summary # Key Points Tools for thinking: - Mistakes - > "If you've made up your mind to test a theory, or you want to explain some idea, you should always decide to publish it whichever way it comes out. If we only publish results of a certain kind, we can make the argument look good. We must publish both kids of results." - Richard Feynman - It's important to study the history of philosophy, because it's the mistakes that philosophers have made that are interesting. - We learn by making mistakes. It gives us something to improve on. (cf [[The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking]]) - Examples of purposeful mistake-making: - Long division. - Before GPS, navigators at sea would guess their latitude and longitude, make a calculation about where the sun should be, and then compare the actual sun's position to infer the actual position. - Philosophers work with each other's confusion. When other fields encounter conceptual confusion, and don't even know what questions they should be asking, that's a job for philosophers. - Occam's Razor - Rapoport's Rules - You should attempt to re-express your target's position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, "Thanks, I wish I'd thought of putting it that way." - You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement.) - You should mention anything you have learned from your target. - Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism. Meaning - Meaning is the core problem of philosophy, because none of the other philosophical issues (such as free will) are problems until we start talking to each other and asking questions. Dogs don't concern each other with the problem of free will. # Resonances # Quotes