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A review by kai256
The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes by Donald D. Hoffman
Did not finish book.
I really didn't appreciate this book. I went in open-minded and ready to be convinced. In fact, I went into it actually agreeing with the main idea - that our perceptions are a filter through which we see the world. I thought that would be enough to at least get a few nuggets out of the book, but I was sorely disappointed.
I really tried to power through this one, but I ultimately had to DNF it halfway through. Around the time I progressed from rolling my eyes to actually talking at the book, I knew it was time to move on.
Things that made me crazy:
* None of the claims are falsifiable.
* The tone is smug and self-aggrandizing.
* Constant name dropping.
* He uses vocabulary in excess just to sound smart. For example, "Our specious conflation of serious and literal tempts us to reify physical objects and snipe-hunt among our figments for progenitors of consciousness."
* Misrepresentation of objections - He regularly argues against the many objections he has received. But a little bit of research into his detractors reveals that the objections he includes are wildly misrepresented straw men.
* Verbal sleight of hand - He coins a metaphor and names it a theory "for convenience." He then spends the rest of the chapter treating it like an actual scientific theory. It claims, permits, and disallows many things.
* Mistreatment of math - He claims to have figured out a mathematical theorem that he called on someone else to prove for him. But he doesn't even state it rigorously (not even in English, much less mathematically rigorously). And we're just supposed to take him at his word that it proves/disproves all the things he says it does.
* It's so much longer than necessary. This started to feel intentional to take advantage of the fact that people are psychologically predisposed to accept anything that's familiar. If he could just repeat himself enough times, we'd all start to agree with him.
* Nothing he says actually matters. Even if it were true, it wouldn't change the way we live and interact with the world around us.
* Did I mention that none of the claims are falsifiable?
Ultimately, this book is a pedantic philosophical argument dressed up to pretend it's scientific. Philosophy is excellent (when it's actually done well), but it's not science.
I really tried to power through this one, but I ultimately had to DNF it halfway through. Around the time I progressed from rolling my eyes to actually talking at the book, I knew it was time to move on.
Things that made me crazy:
* None of the claims are falsifiable.
* The tone is smug and self-aggrandizing.
* Constant name dropping.
* He uses vocabulary in excess just to sound smart. For example, "Our specious conflation of serious and literal tempts us to reify physical objects and snipe-hunt among our figments for progenitors of consciousness."
* Misrepresentation of objections - He regularly argues against the many objections he has received. But a little bit of research into his detractors reveals that the objections he includes are wildly misrepresented straw men.
* Verbal sleight of hand - He coins a metaphor and names it a theory "for convenience." He then spends the rest of the chapter treating it like an actual scientific theory. It claims, permits, and disallows many things.
* Mistreatment of math - He claims to have figured out a mathematical theorem that he called on someone else to prove for him. But he doesn't even state it rigorously (not even in English, much less mathematically rigorously). And we're just supposed to take him at his word that it proves/disproves all the things he says it does.
* It's so much longer than necessary. This started to feel intentional to take advantage of the fact that people are psychologically predisposed to accept anything that's familiar. If he could just repeat himself enough times, we'd all start to agree with him.
* Nothing he says actually matters. Even if it were true, it wouldn't change the way we live and interact with the world around us.
* Did I mention that none of the claims are falsifiable?
Ultimately, this book is a pedantic philosophical argument dressed up to pretend it's scientific. Philosophy is excellent (when it's actually done well), but it's not science.