Consciousness Explained by Daniel C. Dennett
Published 1991 · 170,000 words · about 11 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Philosophy, Science & Nature
How hard is Consciousness Explained to read?
Consciousness Explained scores 31 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 48 out of 100
- Philosophical and cognitive science terminology throughout. Dennett defines terms but expects sustained engagement.
- Sentence structure: 42 out of 100
- Abstraction: 62 out of 100
- Deeply abstract philosophical reasoning about the nature of subjective experience.
- Information density: 58 out of 100
- Dense with arguments, counterarguments, and empirical evidence from multiple fields.
- Narrative indirection: 18 out of 100
- Linear argument punctuated by thought experiments and tangential illustrations.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- The Cartesian Theater as central metaphor. Otherwise analytical.
- Ironic distance: 22 out of 100
- Dennett's provocative, sometimes gleeful dismantling of intuitions.
- Resolution withholding: 15 out of 100
- Dennett provides his answer, though critics dispute whether it resolves the question.
- Structural complexity: 38 out of 100
- Thirteen chapters building a cumulative philosophical argument across multiple disciplines.
How Consciousness Explained is regarded
Consciousness Explained holds a literary regard score of 67 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.