Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

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Skyler

Puritan Board Graduate
Gödel, Escher, Bach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I checked this book out from the library a few years ago, and didn't quite get all the way through it before I had to return it. (This was an interlibrary loan book, so I couldn't renew it.)

It's about "how cognition and thinking emerge from well-hidden neurological mechanisms." But Hofstadter wasn't content with just getting his point across; he wrote the book with the form in mind as much as the content, resulting in what is, in my more or less uneducated opinion, a masterpiece.

He delves into mathematics, music, philosophy, symmetry, and many other fascinating topics as he pursues his point. If you are, like myself, fascinated by intricate philosophical and/or mathematical and/or musical and/or literary structures, I think it's safe to say that you'll enjoy the book as well. :)

Well, that's enough of a review, I think. Some of you have this book, I'm pretty sure--it came up a while ago in a "recommended reading" list someone was asking for. I guess if you're on the PuritanBoard, intricate theological and/or philosophical structures start to come naturally after a while. :D
 
I read the book back in 1979 when it came out. I thought it was intriguing. After God converted me and I read a lot of John Owen, I went back to the book and thought it was not as good as before. A bit too much faith in spontaneous order out of chaos.

But, Doug Hofstader is a really neat guy. He came to Bozeman MT for our Bach festival in 1985 (300th anniversary of his birth). We spent four evenings sitting next to each other rehearsing Bach chorales and cantatas. He was a joy to be around: very humble and really interested in learning more about music. He latched onto me because I had studied composition.

He only had one rule: he was not going to talk about his book!
 
It is a version of an evolutionary view of the mind. He sites Godel to show, if I remember correctly, that a system of cognition can be set up and function like our brains do but be imcomplete at the same time.
 
I read it several years ago and really enjoyed it. I thought the way he ties in Escher was a little weak, but otherwise it was excellent.
 
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