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Douglas Hofstadter

Douglas Hofstadter Quotes

Professor

Douglas Hofstadter is an American cognitive scientist and writer renowned for his contributions to cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and literature. His research focuses on the nature of thought, the nature of consciousness, and the cognitive differences between humans and machines.

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Famous Douglas Hofstadter Quotes

“It is perhaps wrong to say that the enemy of enlightenment is logic; rather, it is dualistic, verbal thinking. In fact, it is even more basic than that: it is perception.”

Thinking Facts Enemy Perception Enlightenment Logic

Author:Douglas Hofstadter

“Enormous numbers of people are taken in, or at least beguiled and fascinated, by what seems to me to be unbelievable hocum, and relatively few are concerned with or thrilled by the astounding-yet true-facts of science, as put forth in the pages of, say, Scientific American.”

People Facts Seems Truth Science Numbers Taken Pages Concerned Enormous Fascinated Unbelievable Publication True Fact

Author:Douglas Hofstadter

“In fact, a sense of essence is, in essence, the essence of sense, in effect.”

Facts Effects Essence

Book:Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern

Source: Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern

“We create an image of who we are inside our self. The image then becomes very deeply entrenched, and it becomes the thing that we attribute responsibility to - we say "I", "I" did this because "I" wanted to, because "I" am a good person or because "I" am a bad person. The loop is the fact that we represent our selves, our desires, hopes, dreads and dreams: it is the way in which we conceive of ourselves, rather than the way we conceive of Mount Everest or of a tree. And I say it exists entirely in the loop: the self is an hallucination hallucinated by an hallucination.”

Way Persons Self Facts Dream Wanted Desire Responsibility Tree Ego Who We Are Attributes Dread Good Person Very Deep Loops Hallucinations Everest Mount Everest

Author:Douglas Hofstadter

“We all have heard it claimed that 13 is an 'unlucky number.' Indeed, there are many hotels in America that for this very reason claim not to have a 13th floor, in the sense that there is no button bearing the label '13' in their elevators (I recently stayed in one in New York, in fact).”

Reason Facts America Numbers Heard New York Claims Labels Hotel Buttons Elevators Unlucky

Author:Douglas Hofstadter

About the Author

Born: February 15, 1945
Known for: Professor
Quotes: 54

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Books & Sources

I Am a Strange LoopRelated source material

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden BraidRelated source material

Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And PatternRelated source material

Understanding UnderstandingRelated source material

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