{{Short description|2007 book by Douglas Hofstadter}} {{Use mdy dates|date= May 2025}} {{Infobox book | name = I Am a Strange Loop | image = Strageloop.jpg | caption = Cover of the first edition | author = [[Douglas Hofstadter]] | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = US | language = English | series = | subject = [[Consciousness]], [[strange loop]]s, [[intelligence]] | publisher = [[Basic Books]] | release_date = March 26, 2007 | media_type = Print (hardback) | pages = 412 pages | isbn = 978-0-465-03078-1 | congress= BD438.5 .H64 2007 | oclc= 64554976 | preceded_by = [[Gödel, Escher, Bach]] }}
'''''I Am a Strange Loop''''' is a 2007 book by [[Douglas Hofstadter]], examining in depth the concept of a ''[[strange loop]]'' to explain the sense of "I". The concept of a ''strange loop'' was originally developed in his 1979 book ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]''.
{{blockquote|In the end, we are self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages that are little miracles of self-reference.|Douglas Hofstadter| ''I Am a Strange Loop'', p. 363}}
==Content== Hofstadter had previously expressed disappointment with how ''Gödel, Escher, Bach'', which won the 1980 [[Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction|Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction]], was received. In the preface to its 20th anniversary edition, he laments that the book was perceived as a hodgepodge of neat things with no central theme. He writes: "GEB is a very personal attempt to say how it is that animate beings can come out of inanimate matter. What is a self, and how can a self come out of stuff that is as selfless as a stone or a puddle?"<ref>{{cite book | last = Hofstadter | first = Douglas R. | author-link = Douglas R. Hofstadter | title = [[Gödel, Escher, Bach]] | publisher = Basic Books | year = 1999 |orig-year= 1979 | page = [https://archive.org/details/gdelescherbachet00hofs/page/ P–2] |contribution= Preface | isbn = 0-465-02656-7 }}</ref>
Hofstadter seeks to remedy this problem in ''I Am a Strange Loop'' by focusing on and expounding the central message of ''Gödel, Escher, Bach''. He demonstrates how the properties of [[self-referential]] systems, demonstrated most famously in [[Gödel's incompleteness theorems]], can be used to describe the unique properties of [[mind]]s.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://tal.forum2.org/hofstadter_interview |title= An Interview with Douglas R. Hofstadter, following ''I am a Strange Loop'' | last = Hofstadter | first = Douglas R. | interviewer= Tal Cohen| work= Tal Cohen's Bookshelf| date= June 11, 2008| access-date= }}</ref> As an exploration of the sense of "I", Hofstadter explores his own life and those to whom he has been close.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-new-journey-into-hofsta |title= A New Journey into Hofstadter's Mind| format= Book review| first= George| last= Johnson| work= [[Scientific American]]| date= March 1, 2007| publisher= |access-date= 2025-05-07}}</ref><ref name="wired">{{cite magazine | url = https://www.wired.com/2007/03/me-my-soul-and-i/ | title = Me, My Soul, and I | last = Hofstadter | first = Douglas R. |interviewer= Kevin Kelly | date= March 2007 | magazine = [[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] | access-date = 2025-05-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/douglas-r-hofstadter |title= Author Interview| last = Hofstadter | first = Douglas R.| interviewer= Greg Ross| work= [[American Scientist]]| date= March 22, 2007| publisher= |url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20130308122208/https://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/douglas-r-hofstadter| archivedate= 2013-03-08 |access-date= 2025-05-07}}</ref><ref name= "Derbyshire">{{cite web| url= http://olimu.com/Journalism/2007/Texts/StrangeLoop.htm| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20071015115821/http://olimu.com/Journalism/2007/Texts/StrangeLoop.htm| archivedate= October 15, 2007 |title= The I's Have It| format= Book review| first= John| last= Derbyshire| work= [[The Wall Street Journal]]| date= March 23, 2007| via= olimu.com| access-date= 2025-05-07}}</ref><ref name="NYTimes">{{cite news| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01wwlnQ4.t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin| title= The Mind Reader | last = Hofstadter | first = Douglas R. | interviewer= Deborah Solomon| work= [[New York Times Magazine]]| date= April 1, 2007| access-date= May 7, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url = https://www.ams.org/notices/200707/tx070700852p.pdf | journal = [[Notices of the American Mathematical Society]] | issue = 7 | pages = 853 | last = Gardner | first = Martin | author-link = Martin Gardner | date=August 2007 | title = Do Loops Explain Consciousness? Review of ''I Am a Strange Loop'' | volume = 54 | publisher= | access-date = 2007-12-10}}</ref>
The book received favorable reviews. The ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' called it "fascinating", "original", and "thought-provoking".<ref name="Derbyshire" />
== See also == * [[Feedback|Feedback loop]] * [[Phenomenology (philosophy)]] * [[Identity (philosophy)|Identity]]: in particular, the [[Ship of Theseus]] paradox * [[Russell's paradox]] * [[Cogito, ergo sum|''I think, therefore I am'']]: similar idea from [[René Descartes]]
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Clear}} {{Douglas Hofstadter}}
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[[Category:2007 non-fiction books]] [[Category:Science books]] [[Category:Cognitive science literature]] [[Category:Books by Douglas Hofstadter]] [[Category:Basic Books books]] [[Category:Self]]