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{{Short description|2007 book by Douglas Hofstadter}}
{{Infobox book
 | name    = I Am a Strange Loop
 | image   = Strageloop.jpg
 | caption = Cover of the first edition
 | author  = [[Biography:Douglas Hofstadter|Douglas Hofstadter]]
 | illustrator = 
 | cover_artist = 
 | country = United States
 | language = English
 | series = 
 | subject = [[Philosophy:Consciousness|Consciousness]], [[Strange loop|strange loop]]s, [[Philosophy:Intelligence|intelligence]]
 | publisher = Basic Books
 | release_date =  March 26th, 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 [[Biography:Douglas Hofstadter|Douglas Hofstadter]], examining in depth the concept of a ''[[Strange loop|strange loop]]'' to explain the sense of "I". The concept of a ''strange loop'' was originally developed in his 1979 book ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]''.

{{quote|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, was received.  In the preface to its 20th anniversary edition, Hofstadter laments that the book was perceived as a hodgepodge of neat things with no central theme. He states: "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. |  title = [[Gödel, Escher, Bach]] | publisher = Basic Books | year = 1999 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/gdelescherbachet00hofs/page/ P–2 (Twentieth-anniversary 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 [[Philosophy:Mind|mind]]s.<ref>[http://tal.forum2.org/hofstadter_interview An Interview with Douglas R. Hofstadter, following ''I am a Strange Loop''], by Tal Cohen, ''Tal Cohen's Bookshelf'', June 11, 2008</ref>

As an exploration of the sense of "I", Hofstadter explores his own life and those to whom he has been close.<ref>[http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-new-journey-into-hofsta A New Journey into Hofstadter's Mind] - book review by George Johnson in ''Scientific American'', March 2007</ref><ref name="wired">{{cite magazine | url = https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.03/play.html?pg=3 | title = Me, My Soul, and I | access-date = 2007-12-10 | date=March 2007 | magazine = Wired}}</ref><ref>[http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/douglas-r-hofstadter Author Interview] by Greg Ross, ''American Scientist Online'', March 22, 2007</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071015115821/http://olimu.com/Journalism/2007/Texts/StrangeLoop.htm The I's Have It] - book review by John Derbyshire, ''{{wipe|The Wall Street Journal}}'', March 23, 2007</ref><ref name="NYTimes">[https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01wwlnQ4.t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin The Mind Reader] ''New York Times Magazine'', April 1, 2007</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url = https://www.ams.org/notices/200707/tx070700852p.pdf | access-date = 2007-12-10 | journal = Notices of the American Mathematical Society | issue = #7 | pages = 853 | last = Gardner | first = Martin |  date=August 2007 | title = Do Loops Explain Consciousness? Review of ''I Am a Strange Loop'' | volume = 54}}</ref>

The book received favorable reviews. The ''Wall Street Journal'' referred to the book as "fascinating", "original", and "thought-provoking".{{fact|date=August 2023}}

== See also ==
* [[Feedback|Feedback loop]]
* [[Philosophy:Phenomenology|Phenomenology]]
* [[Philosophy:Identity|Identity]]: in particular, the [[Ship of Theseus]] paradox
* [[Russell's paradox]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

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[[Category:Self]]



{{Sourceattribution|I Am a Strange Loop}}