Ron Peters's Reviews > Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking

This book is deceptively titled. There is a smattering of general-purpose thinking tools at the start of the book, basic ones like Occam’s Razor. Most of his so-called thinking tools are just little formulations designed to let Dennett rehash his existing beliefs about evolution, consciousness, and free will. It might as well be titled “Tools for Thinking… Just like me!”

It’s also disappointing that Dennett cannot let go of his grudge against Stephen J. Gould. He uses Gould as the source of a range of deceptive rhetorical practices. The man is dead now – let it go, for Pete’s sake, Doctor Dennett.

Searching for “thinking tools” on archive.org you can borrow books closer to what I thought this one was going to be. R. & M. Root-Bernstein (1999) Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People, and Curtis Miles (1987) Thinking Tools: Academic, Personal, and Career Applications.