Dennett is also well known for his argument against qualia, which claims that the concept is so confused that it cannot be put to any use or understood in any non-contradictory way, and therefore does not constitute a valid refutation of physicalism. This argument was presented most comprehensively in his book Consciousness Explained.
Sweet Dreams : Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness (Jean Nicod Lectures) (Bradford Books 2005) (ISBN 0262042258) - forthcoming
Texts on Dennett
Daniel Dennett edited by Andrew Brook and Don Ross (Cambridge University Press 2000) (ISBN 0521008646)
Dennett's Philosophy: A Comprehensive Assessment edited by Don Ross, Andrew Brook and David Thompson (MIT Press 2000) (ISBN 0262182009)
Dennett, among others, is discussed in John Brockman's The Third Culture.
Select Quote
A quote from Chapter 25 of Brain Children that is fundamental to understanding Dennett's work:
"The first stable conclusion I reached … was that the only thing brains could do was to approximate the responsivity to meanings that we presuppose in our everyday mentalistic discourse. When mechanical push comes to shove, a brain was always going to do what it was caused to do by current, local, mechanical circumstances, whatever it ought to do, whatever a God's-eye view might reveal about the actual meaning of its current states. But over the long haul, brains could be designed - by evolutionary processes - to do the right thing (from the point of view of meaning) with high reliability. … [B]rains are syntactic engines that can mimic the competence of semantic engines. … The appreciation of meanings - their discrimination and delectation - is central to our vision of consciousness, but this conviction that I, on the inside, deal directly with meanings turns out to be something rather like a benign "user-illusion".
Philosopher DanielC. Dennett is University Professor, Professor of Philosophy, and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University.
Dennett's research centers on philosophy of mind and philosophy of science, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science.
He is perhaps best known for his concept of intentional systems, and his multiple drafts model of human consciousness, which sketches a computational architecture for realizing the stream of consciousness in the massively parallel cerebral cortex.
DanielC. Dennett is een van de meest gerespecteerde en toonaangevende filosofen van dit moment en houdt zich intensief bezig met de aard van het bewustzijn.
DanielC. Dennett laat in De betovering van het geloof zien hoe religie ontstaan is, van het kleinschalige begin in volksgeloof en bijgeloof tot aan de grote instituties waarbinnen het geloof meestal strak georganiseerd is. Eerlijk en genuanceerd onderzoekt hij wat mensen belangrijk vinden aan religie en wat ze eraan ontlenen.
Dennett is sceptisch maar niet antireligieus, en wanneer blijkt dat het antwoord op die vraag soms wel degelijk 'ja' is, wil hij begrijpen hoe dat kan - en zo heeft hij werkelijk iets nieuws te zeggen over de grote vragen van onze tijd.
Feeds |
Contact