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I'm reading "Godel, Escher, Bach", and Hofstadter's idea that consciousness emerges out of strange loops born out of experience.

Now, I know nothing about the philosophy of consciousness at all. But is this notion taken with any seriousness by philosophers?

(Admittedly, part of what I'm asking is whether someone can give me a shortcut that would allow me a way out of critically reading his views on consciousness. I'm reading the book for pleasure, and not sure that I can really take his views through the ringer.)

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For what it's worth, I do not believe his ideas are taken seriously by neuroscientists, which is really the relevant audience. – Rex Kerr Feb 24 at 15:54
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I'm not sure this is the most constructive/urgent way to get at this concern. "Is para-academic figure X taken seriously?" seems to demand a poll of philosophers; this reminds me of the Rand question. I'm not sure "takedowns" are helpful -- especially when masquerading as analyses of the marginality/minority of these figures. (What after all is "taken seriously" in philosophy; or rather is philosophy not itself a kind of higher or nobler levity?) At any rate, I don't like being asked to indict this or that independent writer or thinker as a failure in such and so a way. – Joseph Weissman♦ Feb 25 at 0:35
I don't know, I might be over-reacting. But maybe we could try think of a less binary way to confront some of the issues around thinking and marginality and so on here? – Joseph Weissman♦ Feb 25 at 0:35
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@JosephWeissman: well, for sufficiently well-known thinkers (both Rand and Hofstadter are certainly well-known for example), a binary assessment of a person is really just a stand-in for a criticism of their ideas. It would be fair to ask that questions such as these be reframed to ask what criticism the philosophical establishment has to offer a given author on certain topics, or how the establishment builds upon or refers to those ideas. @MBP: I would recommend re-framing this question in this way, to ask whether academic philosophy has any criticism to offer for Hofstadter's ideas. – Niel de Beaudrap Feb 27 at 13:48
I'd frame Godel, Escher & Bach as part of literature that riffs on philosophical themes in a light-hearted way as say Alice in Wonderland does (and unlike Borges who does it with scholarly gravitas). Except of course that Alice is much more readable :) – Mozibur Ullah Mar 4 at 0:03

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