New Releases by Douglas R. Hofstadter

«Che cos’è la mente? Chi sono io? Può la mera materia pensare o sentire? Dov’è l’anima? Chiunque si trovi ad affrontare queste domande precipita in un mare di perplessità. Questo libro vuole essere un tentativo di rivelare queste perplessità e portarle in piena luce... vuole dunque provocare, infastidire e confondere i lettori, vuole rendere strano ciò che è ovvio e, magari, rendere ovvio ciò che è strano». HOFSTADTER E DENNETT

L’analogia è un processo intellettivo fondamentale – e misterioso. Forse anche per questo la scienza ne ha sempre diffidato, come se vi si celasse la minaccia di una perdita di rigore del ragionamento. Eppure l’analogia continua ad agire, a tutti i livelli. E alcuni grandi pensatori, da Platone a Simone Weil, hanno insinuato che solo l’analogia permette di accedere alla comprensione di realtà che altrimenti rimarrebbero opache. Così, con la giocosa immediatezza e a un tempo con la profondità già mostrata in «Gödel, Escher, Bach», Hofstadter ha voluto rovesciare la prospettiva, affrontando il tema all’interno di una indagine innovatrice sui modelli computazionali della creatività umana. Impresa ambiziosissima, giacché in questo ambito ogni tentativo di meccanizzazione sfocia in un vicolo cieco: per programmare un calcolatore in vista di un qualsiasi risultato, infatti, occorre definire i processi con tanta rigida precisione che non è più lecito parlare di creatività. Ma qui si evita la trappola con il ricorso alle «analogie fluide»: il percorso creativo diventa un navigare a vista, scrutando in ogni direzione. E la stessa parola «creatività» comincia a perdere quei connotati incerti che così spesso la rendono fastidiosa e inutilizzabile. L’attività di pensiero ha natura parallela: al modo di minuscoli esploratori, molti sottoprogrammi compiono piccoli atti subcognitivi indipendenti, li confrontano e collettivamente costruiscono strutture mentali coerenti. Hofstadter e i suoi colleghi del Gruppo di Ricerca sulle Analogie fluide saggiano il loro approccio in campi quali gli anagrammi, le successioni numeriche, i giochi matematici, la costruzione di alfabeti tipografici in stili diversi, la disposizione casuale di oggetti su un tavolo, e mostrano come già esempi così semplici pongano problemi che rappresentano una sfida continua a pensare in modo creativo. Ma ogni volta il programma si rivela capace di istituire analogie significative, di compiere salti logici, e anche di fornire più di una risposta «giusta», o di distinguere tra risposte deboli o forti, ovvie o profonde – proprio come gli esseri umani. Se «Gödel, Escher, Bach» aveva segnato l’apice della fortuna dell’intelligenza artificiale, il nuovo libro di Hofstadter rende esplicita con la massima efficacia la transizione da quest’ultima a quell’area ancora in gran parte inesplorata che oggi si designa con l’espressione «scienze cognitive». «Concetti fluidi e analogie creative» è apparso per la prima volta nel 1995.

- Con la ambiciosa intención de explorar el complejoconcepto del yodesde el punto de vista científico, Douglas R. Hofstadterretoma y amplía una de las ideasfundamentales que presentó en su aclamada obra Gödel, Escher, Bach: el paralelismo entre el hallazgo de Gödel de una autorreferenciasurgida de un sustrato de símbolos sin significado y la milagrosaaparición de egos y almas a partir de sustratos de materia inanimada, donderesidiría el secreto de nuestrosentido del «yo». La tarea de reseguir los múltiples meandros de ese «extraño bucle» sólopodíaabordarla un genio de interesesmultidisciplinares como Hofstadter.No es poca cosa investigar si una identidad –alma, conciencia o «yo»– puedeemerger de la simple materia. De la sopa de partículas que, a un nivelmásprofundo, es el cerebrohumano, ascendemos a una selva de neuronas y, aún más allá, a una red de abstracciones que denominamos «símbolos», el máscomplejo y trascendental de los cuales es el «yo», eseextraño bucle en el cerebro en el que se realimentan los nivelessimbólicos y físicos. Curiosamente los símbolosparecenposeerlibrealbedrío y tener la paradójicapropiedad de impulsar a las partículas y no al revés. ¿Cómopuede ser real una misteriosa abstracción como ésa? ¿Cómoreflejamos a otrosseres en nuestramente? ¿Pueden coexistir en nuestrocerebro diversos bucles extraños de distinta «intensidad»?A preguntas y misterios como éstos se enfrenta Douglas Hofstadter en esteapasionanteensayotrufado de las anécdotas, metáforas y analogías que le han hechofamoso... y comprensible para el profano. Un estilo de escribirensayos –ameno, provocativo, comprometido– que, como los clásicos de la filosofía, da que pensar.

Argues that the key to understanding ourselves and consciousness is the "strange loop," a special kind of abstract feedback loop that inhabits the brain.

Analyse van de wijze waarop de mens de wereld waarneemt, naar aanleiding daarvan begrippen vormt en tot begrip en communicatie komt.

L''analogie est le mécanisme qui, sans que nous en ayons conscience, dicte le choix de nos mots et notre compréhension des situations les plus quotidiennes. Elle nous guide face à des circonstances inattendues, inspire notre imagination et est même à la source des découvertes d''Einstein. La logique est-elle le fondement de notre pensée ? Réhabilitant les pouvoirs et la richesse créatrice de l''analogie, cet ouvrage montre qu''il n''en est peut-être rien. Trente ans après Gödel, Escher, Bach (prix Pulitzer 1980), dont l''influence et le succès ont été considérables, ce nouveau livre, totalement révolutionnaire, écrit à quatre mains dans un langage non technique et illustré d''une foule d''exemples empruntés à tous les champs de la vie, propose une nouvelle théorie de la pensée. Douglas Hofstadter est professeur de sciences cognitives à l''Indiana University et directeur du Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition. Il est notamment l''auteur de Je suis une boucle étrange (2008) et de Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979), immense succès. Emmanuel Sander est professeur de psychologie à l''université Paris-VIII où il dirige l''équipe «Compréhension, raisonnement et acquisition des connaissances». Il a notamment publié Les Connaissances naïves (2008) et L''Analogie. Du naïf au créatif (2000).

Hofstadter''s collection of quirky essays is unified by its primary concern: to examine the way people perceive and think.

One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks, where does the self come from -- and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, soul, consciousness, "I" arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the "strange loop"-a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called "I." The "I" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. How can a mysterious abstraction be real-or is our "I" merely a convenient fiction? Does an "I" exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter''s first book-length journey into philosophy since Gödel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is a moving and profound inquiry into the nature of mind.

An accessible explanation of Kurt Gödel’s groundbreaking work in mathematical logic: “An excellent nontechnical account.” —Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society In 1931 Kurt Gödel published his fundamental paper, “On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems.” This revolutionary paper challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. Gödel received public recognition of his work in 1951 when he received the first Albert Einstein Award for achievement in the natural sciences—perhaps the highest award of its kind in the United States. The award committee described his work in mathematical logic as “one of the greatest contributions to the sciences in recent times.” However, few mathematicians of the time were equipped to understand the young scholar’s complex proof. Ernest Nagel and James Newman provide a readable and accessible explanation to both scholars and non-specialists of the main ideas and broad implications of Gödel''s discovery. It offers every educated person with a taste for logic and philosophy the chance to understand a previously difficult and inaccessible subject. New York University Press is proud to publish this special edition of one of its bestselling books. With a new foreword by Douglas R. Hofstadter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gödel, Escher, Bach, who also updated the text, this book will be of interest to students, scholars, and professionals in the fields of mathematics, computer science, logic and philosophy, and science.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll Douglas Hofstadter''s book is concerned directly with the nature of "maps" or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence. Gödel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.

Lost in an art—the art of translation. Thus, in an elegant anagram (translation = lost in an art), Pulitzer Prize-winning author and pioneering cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter hints at what led him to pen a deep personal homage to the witty sixteenth-century French poet Clément Marot.”Le ton beau de Marot” literally means ”The sweet tone of Marot”, but to a French ear it suggests ”Le tombeau de Marot”—that is, ”The tomb of Marot”. That double entendre foreshadows the linguistic exuberance of this book, which was sparked a decade ago when Hofstadter, under the spell of an exquisite French miniature by Marot, got hooked on the challenge of recreating both its sweet message and its tight rhymes in English—jumping through two tough hoops at once.In the next few years, he not only did many of his own translations of Marot''s poem, but also enlisted friends, students, colleagues, family, noted poets, and translators—even three state-of-the-art translation programs!—to try their hand at this subtle challenge.The rich harvest is represented here by 88 wildly diverse variations on Marot''s little theme. Yet this barely scratches the surface of Le Ton beau de Marot, for small groups of these poems alternate with chapters that run all over the map of language and thought.Not merely a set of translations of one poem, Le Ton beau de Marot is an autobiographical essay, a love letter to the French language, a series of musings on life, loss, and death, a sweet bouquet of stirring poetry—but most of all, it celebrates the limitless creativity fired by a passion for the music of words.Dozens of literary themes and creations are woven into the picture, including Pushkin''s Eugene Onegin, Dante''s Inferno, Salinger''s Catcher in the Rye, Villon''s Ballades, Nabokov''s essays, Georges Perec''s La Disparition, Vikram Seth''s Golden Gate, Horace''s odes, and more.Rife with stunning form-content interplay, crammed with creative linguistic experiments yet always crystal-clear, this book is meant not only for lovers of literature, but also for people who wish to be brought into contact with current ideas about how creativity works, and who wish to see how today''s computational models of language and thought stack up next to the human mind.Le Ton beau de Marot is a sparkling, personal, and poetic exploration aimed at both the literary and the scientific world, and is sure to provoke great excitement and heated controversy among poets and translators, critics and writers, and those involved in the study of creativity and its elusive wellsprings.

Hofstadter has developed a sophisticated vision of the mind in which perception, at an abstract level, is the key.

Qu''est-ce que l''esprit? Où est l''âme? En quoi l''esprit humain est-il unique? Où se situe la différence entre l''homme et la machine? Hofstadter et Dennett ont réuni vingt-sept textes de dix-sept auteurs, qu''ils complètent par des réflexions. Leur but, tel qu''ils le décrivent, n''est pas tant d''apporter des réponses que de "secouer tout le monde: ceux qui ont du monde une vision scientifique pure et dure, mais aussi ceux qui ont une vision religieuse ou spiritualiste de l''âme humaine". Ce livre est aussi une excellente introduction aux sciences cognitives, ce domaine interdisciplinaire recouvrant neurologie, philosophie, informatique, psychologie, linguistique.