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From: kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT)
Newsgroups: net.sci,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Helpful vs. Harmful Therapy
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Date: Wed, 19-Mar-86 11:13:24 EST
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Posted: Wed Mar 19 11:13:24 1986
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Tom Tedrick (Hi, Tom) perks up upon reading a recent posting of mine:

>>Axelrod is on to
>>some good theories.  So is Hofstatder and Smullyan.  [KORT]
>
>Ummm, what works of Smullyan are you refering to? I have
>about 5 of his books (one on formal logic, two on retrograde
>chess analysis, two on popularized logic {like What Is The Name
>Of This Book}). He also gave a talk in Berkeley a few years ago
>that I had the pleasure of hearing.
>
>Has he done some other work that I am not aware of?
>
>Also, I never took Hofstatder seriously after reading GEB.
>Was that a mistake?
>
>   -Tom
>    tedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu
>
[Matthew, you may wish to tune out at this juncture.]

Smullyan's latest book is on combinatorial logic.  It's called,
To Mock A Mockingbird.  Smullyan also hopscotches the planet to
bring us the world of Lao Tse in The Tao is Silent.  If you
read enough Smullyan, you begin to see where Hofstadter got much
of his style and material.

Meanwhile, Hofstadter, who is now Professor of Cognitive Science
and Human Understanding at U Mich, has given us two more classics.
The Mind's I, composed and arranged by Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett,
brings us to the frontiers of speculation about the mind.  Hof has
also compiled his Metamagical Themas into a book, with additional
commentary plus some previously unpublished material.

Hofstadter is whimsical in his imagery, but deadly serious in his
quest for deeper understanding.  He is basically a translator who
takes arcane material and dresses it up for a larger audience.
Hof is teaching us how to play, be creative, be entertaining,
and learn to enjoy ourselves as we learn.  I love him.

--Barry Kort  ...ihnp4!hounx!kort