The Self-Sufficient Mind
The Self-Sufficient Mind — by your father
Your father — tenured, published, and away from home
Long, heavy and scaled, coiled on itself. It does not move unless it has to.
- Catch rate
- Not found in the wild
- Base research
- 420
- Stat total
- 404
Base stats
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
Why these numbers
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
STAMINA — Huge, though not a Bible’s. Six hundred pages, and he cites everyone.
CONTEND — Moderate. It rarely makes an argument of its own. It quotes the strongest ones.
DEFEND — Very high. Every objection is answered in a footnote before you can raise it.
POPULARITY — Low. It is set reading in one department.
Cited for this book
An anthology of the strongest rational objections to the Christian faith: Kant on the proofs, Russell on the first cause, Clifford on evidence, Hume on doubt, Lessing on the ditch. Your father wrote the introductions.
Moves learned
This book learns nothing new by levelling — everything it knows, it knew from the start or brought with it through development.
What answers it
The specific move or chapter of Scripture that cuts through this one, and why. The number is how much harder it hits than usual — ×4 is four times the normal force.
Augustine: if I am mistaken, I exist. A mind that trusts only itself has already trusted something it did not make.
Bavinck: reason works on what God has already shown. A mind that cuts itself off from revelation cuts itself off from its own ground.
Even Kant said reason reaches its limit and stops. The book quotes him and skips that chapter.