Western Philosophy 21st-century philosophy
Name Living philosophers and academics of philosophy (and others important in the history of philosophy), listed alphabetically: (For philosophers who have recently passed away, see the companion list: List of philosophers born in the twentieth century. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (728x954, 869 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Daniel Dennett ...	Daniel Dennett
Birth	March 28, 1942 (1942-03-28) (age 65) is the 87th day of the year (88th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
School/tradition	Analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy (sometimes, analytical philosophy) is a generic term for a style of philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century. ...
Main interests	Philosophy of mind Philosophy of biology Philosophy of science A Phrenological mapping of the brain. ... Philosophy of biology (also called, rarely, biophilosophy) is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. ... Philosophy of science is the study of assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, especially in the natural sciences and social sciences. ...
Notable ideas	Heterophenomenology Intentional stance According to Dennett, heterophenomonology (phenomenology of another not oneself), is the process in which you take the vocal sounds emanating from the subjects’ mouths (and your own mouth) and interpret them! He goes on to assert that the total set of details of heterophenomenology, plus all the data we... The Intentional Stance is a theory of mental content proposed, developed and championed by the American philosopher Daniel C. Dennett. ...
Influences	Gilbert Ryle, W.V.O. Quine, Ludwig Wittgenstein Gilbert Ryle (born August 19, 1900 in Brighton, died October 6, 1976 in Oxford), was a philosopher, and a representative of the generation of British ordinary language philosophers influenced by Wittgensteins insights into language, and is principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the... W. V. Quine Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25, 1908 - December 25, 2000) was one of the most influential American philosophers and logicians of the 20th century. ... Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (IPA: ) (April 26, 1889 in Vienna, Austria – April 29, 1951 in Cambridge, England) was an Austrian philosopher who contributed several ground-breaking ideas to philosophy, primarily in the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind. ...

Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28, 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a prominent American philosopher whose research centers on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. Dennett is currently the Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. Dennett is also a noted atheist and advocate of the brights movement.^[1] is the 87th day of the year (88th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... For other uses, see Philosophy (disambiguation). ... A Phrenological mapping of the brain. ... Philosophy of science is the study of assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, especially in the natural sciences and social sciences. ... Philosophy of biology (also called, rarely, biophilosophy) is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ... Tufts University is a private research university in Medford/Somerville, Massachusetts, suburbs of Boston. ... “Atheist” redirects here. ... Symbol of the brights The brights movement was started by Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell in 2003 to provide a positive-sounding umbrella term, bright, to describe various types of people who have a naturalistic worldview, without casting that worldview as a negative response to religion (as the terms atheist...

Biography

Dennett spent part of his childhood in Beirut, where, during World War II, his father, a counter-intelligence agent with the Office of Strategic Services, had a cover job at the American Legation. The young Dennett and family returned to Massachusetts in 1947 after his father died in an unexplained plane crash.^[2][3] For other uses, see Beirut (disambiguation). ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency and was the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Special Forces, and Navy SEALs. ...

He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and received his B.A. in philosophy from Harvard University in 1963, where he was a student of W.V. Quine. In 1965, he received his D.Phil. in philosophy from Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied under the ordinary language philosopher Gilbert Ryle. While at Oxford, Dennett has claimed,^[4] he introduced the first frisbee to the United Kingdom. Dennett is currently (May 2007) the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, University Professor, and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies (with Ray Jackendoff) at Tufts University. Phillips Exeter Academy (most commonly called Exeter, also Phillips Exeter or PEA) is a co-educational independent boarding school for grades 9–12, located on 619 acres[1] in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, fifty miles north of Boston. ... A B.A. issued from the University of Tennessee. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... W. V. Quine Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25, 1908 - December 25, 2000) was one of the most influential American philosophers and logicians of the 20th century. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... College name Christ Church Named after Jesus Christ Established 1546 Sister College Trinity College Dean The Very Revd Christopher Andrew Lewis JCR President William Dorsey Undergraduates 426 MCR or GCR President {{{MCR President}}} Graduates 154 Home page Boat Club Christ Church (Latin: Ædes Christi, the temple or house of Christ... Gilbert Ryle (born August 19, 1900 in Brighton, died October 6, 1976 in Oxford), was a philosopher, and a representative of the generation of British ordinary language philosophers influenced by Wittgensteins insights into language, and is principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the... A Wham-O Professional Frisbee For the amusement ride, see Frisbee (ride). ... Ray Jackendoff (born 1945) is an influential contemporary linguist who has always straddled the boundary between generative linguistics and cognitive linguistics, committed as he is both to the existence of an innate Universal Grammar (an all-important thesis of generative linguistics) and to giving an account of language that meshes... Tufts University is a private research university in Medford/Somerville, Massachusetts, suburbs of Boston. ...

Dennett describes himself as "an autodidact — or, more properly, the beneficiary of hundreds of hours of informal tutorials on all the fields that interest me, from some of the world's leading scientists."^[3] Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning. ...

Daniel Dennett in Tahiti in 1984

Dennett gave the John Locke lectures at the University of Oxford in 1983, the Gavin David Young Lectures at Adelaide, Australia, in 1985, and the Tanner Lecture at Michigan in 1986, among many others. In 2001 he was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize and gave the Jean Nicod Lectures in Paris. He has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Science. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1987. He was the co-founder (1985) and co-director of the Curricular Software Studio at Tufts University, and has helped to design museum exhibits on computers for the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Science in Boston, and the Computer Museum in Boston. He is a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is also an avid sailor. Image File history File links Dan_Dennett_in_Tahiti. ... Image File history File links Dan_Dennett_in_Tahiti. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The John Locke lectures are a series of annual lectures in philosophy given at the University of Oxford. ... The University of Oxford (usually abbreviated as Oxon. ... The Jean Nicod Prize is awarded annually in Paris to a leading philosopher of mind or philosophically oriented cognitive scientist. ... Jean George Pierre Nicod (c. ... Guggenheim can be a reference to any of a number of members or interests of the Meyer Guggenheim family, including: Meyer Guggenheim, or his descendants: Guggenheim family; The Guggenheim Museums; foundations such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (see also Guggenheim Fellowship), and the Harry... The Fulbright Program is program of educational grants (Fulbright Fellowships) sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. ... The House of the Academy, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Tufts University is a private research university in Medford/Somerville, Massachusetts, suburbs of Boston. ... The Smithsonian Institution Building or Castle on the National Mall serves as the Institutions headquarters. ... The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) is a U.S. nonprofit organization whose stated purpose is to encourage the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and... For either of the songs named Sailing, see Sailing (song). ...

In October 2006, Dennett was hospitalized due to a dissection of the aorta. After a nine-hour surgery, he was given a new aorta and aortic arch. As of November, he was recuperating from the surgery. In an essay posted on the Edge website, Dennett gives his firsthand account of his health problems, his consequent feelings of gratitude towards the scientists and doctors whose hard work made his recovery possible, and his complete lack of a "deathbed conversion".^[5] Aortic dissection is a tear in the wall of the aorta (the largest artery of the body). ... The aorta (generally pronounced [eɪˈɔːtə] or ay-orta) is the largest artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and bringing oxygenated blood to all parts of the body in the systemic circulation. ... The Edge Foundation was created in 1988 to seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together and have themselves ask each other the questions they are asking themselves. ... A deathbed conversion is the adoption of a particular religious faith immediately before dying. ...

Philosophical views

Dennett has remarked in several places (such as "Self-portrait", in Brainchildren) that his overall philosophical project has remained largely the same since his time at Oxford. He is primarily concerned with providing a philosophy of mind that is grounded in empirical research. In his original dissertation, Content and Consciousness, he broke up the problem of explaining the mind into the need for a theory of content and for a theory of consciousness. His approach to this project has also stayed true to this distinction. Just as Content and Consciousness has a bipartite structure, he similarly divided Brainstorms into two sections. He would later collect several essays on content in The Intentional Stance and synthesize his views on consciousness into a unified theory in Consciousness Explained. These volumes respectively form the most extensive development of his views, and he frequently refers back to them in subsequent writings. A Phrenological mapping of the brain. ... A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses. ... This article is about the thesis in academia. ... Cover of Consciousness Explained Consciousness Explained (published 1991) is a controversial book by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett which attempts to explain how consciousness arises from interaction of physical and cognitive processes in the brain. ...

In Consciousness Explained, Dennett's interest in the ability of evolution to explain some of the content-producing features of consciousness is already apparent, and this has since become an integral part of his program. He defends a theory known by some as Neural Darwinism. He also presents an argument against qualia; he argues 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. Much of Dennett's work in the 1990s has been concerned with fleshing out his previous ideas by addressing the same topics from an evolutionary standpoint, from what distinguishes human minds from animal minds (Kinds of Minds), to how free will is compatible with a naturalist view of the world (Freedom Evolves). His most recent book, Breaking the Spell, is an attempt to subject religious belief to the same treatment, explaining possible evolutionary reasons for the phenomenon of religious adherence. The term Neural Darwinism is used in two different ways. ... Redness is the canonical quale. ... The term physicalism was coined by Otto Neurath, in a series of early 20th century essays on the subject, in which he wrote According to physicalism, the language of physics is the universal language of science and, consequently, any knowledge can be brought back to the statements on the physical... Freedom Evolves is a 2003 popular science and philosophy book by Daniel Dennett. ... Cover of Breaking the Spell Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (published 2006) is a book by the American philosopher Daniel C. Dennett, which attempts a scientific analysis of the origins of religion and of its pros and cons. ...

While it is clear that Dennett does not subscribe to a number of categories (such as Cartesian materialism and Dualism), it is less clear which ones he fits into. As Dennett himself puts it: Objects experienced are represented within the mind of the observer In philosophy of mind, Cartesian materialism is the idea that at some place (or places) in the brain, there is some set of information that directly corresponds to our conscious experience. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

[Others] note that my 'avoidance of the standard philosophical terminology for discussing such matters' often creates problems for me; philosophers have a hard time figuring out what I am saying and what I am denying. My refusal to play ball with my colleagues is deliberate, of course, since I view the standard philosophical terminology as worse than useless — a major obstacle to progress since it consists of so many errors.

– Daniel Dennett, The Message is: There is no Medium

Dennett self-identifies with a few terms. In Consciousness Explained, he admits "I am a sort of 'teleofunctionalist', of course, perhaps the original teleofunctionalist'". He goes on to say, "I am ready to come out of the closet as a sort of verificationalist". In Breaking the Spell he admits to being "a bright", and defends the term on several occasions. A "qualophile" is Daniel Dennett's nickname for any philosopher who believes in the reality of qualia. Functionalism is a theory of the mind in contemporary philosophy, developed largely as an alternative to both the identity theory of mind and behaviorism. ... In philosophy, epistemic theories of truth are attempts to analyse the notion of truth in terms of epistemic notions such as belief, acceptance, verification, justification, perspective and so on. ... Cover of Breaking the Spell Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (published 2006) is a book by the American philosopher Daniel C. Dennett, which attempts a scientific analysis of the origins of religion and of its pros and cons. ... Symbol of the brights The brights movement was started by Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell in 2003 to provide a positive-sounding umbrella term, bright, to describe various types of people who have a naturalistic worldview, without casting that worldview as a negative response to religion (as the terms atheist... Redness is the canonical quale. ...

Role in evolutionary debate

Dennett's views on evolution are identified as being strongly adaptationist, in line with the views of ethologist Richard Dawkins. In Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Dennett showed himself even more willing than Dawkins to defend adaptationism in print, devoting an entire chapter to a criticism of the views of paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. This stems from Gould's long-running public debate with E. O. Wilson and other evolutionary biologists over human sociobiology and its descendant evolutionary psychology, which Gould, Richard Lewontin, and John Maynard Smith opposed, but which Dennett advocated, together with Dawkins and Steven Pinker.^[6] Dennett's debate with Gould has led to some backlash from Gould and his supporters, who allege that Dennett overstated his claims and misrepresented Gould's.^[7] Adaptationism is the view that all or most traits are optimal adaptations. ... Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour (particularly of social animals such as primates and canids), and is a branch of zoology. ... Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. ... cover Darwins Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (1995) is a controversial book by Daniel Dennett that argues that Darwinian processes are the central organising force not only in biology (which is not controversial), but also in most other aspects of the Universe, including the human mind... A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. ... Edward Osborne Wilson (b. ... This article or section includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Evolutionary psychology (abbreviated EP) is a theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain mental and psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, i. ... Richard Lewontin Richard Charles Dick Lewontin (born March 29, 1929) is an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and social commentator. ... Professor John Maynard Smith[1], F.R.S. (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a British evolutionary biologist and geneticist. ... Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a prominent Canadian-born American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and popular science writer known for his spirited and wide-ranging advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. ...

Dennett has also written about and advocated the notion of memetics. Memetics is an approach to evolutionary models of information transfer based on the concept of the meme. ...

References

1. ^ "The Bright Stuff" New York Times Essay reprinted on The Brights website.; see also [1][2][3][4][5] for descriptions of Dennett as an atheist.
2. ^ "The semantic engineer", by Andrew Brown; 17 April 2004
3. ^ ^{a b} Dennett, Daniel C. [08 2004] (2005-09-13). "What I Want to Be When I Grow Up", in John Brockman: Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 1-4000-7686-2. 
4. ^ The semantic engineer, Guardian Unlimited Books, April 17 2004 http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,6000,1193371,00.html
5. ^ 'Thank Goodness!', edge 195, Nov. 3, 2006
6. ^ Although Dennett has expressed criticism of human sociobiology, calling it a form of "greedy reductionism," he is generally sympathetic towards the explanations proposed by evolutionary psychology. Gould also is not one sided, and writes: "Sociobiologists have broadened their range of selective stories by invoking concepts of inclusive fitness and kin selection to solve (successfully I think) the vexatious problem of altruism—previously the greatest stumbling block to a Darwinian theory of social behavior. . . . Here sociobiology has had and will continue to have success. And here I wish it well. For it represents an extension of basic Darwinism to a realm where it should apply." Gould, 1980. "Sociobiology and the Theory of Natural Selection" In G. W. Barlow and J. Silverberg, eds., Sociobiology: Beyond Nature/Nurture? Boulder CO: Westview Press, pp. 257-269.
7. ^ 'Evolution: The pleasures of Pluralism' — Stephen Jay Gould's review of Darwin's Dangerous Idea

Symbol of the brights The brights movement was started by Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell in 2003 to provide a positive-sounding umbrella term, bright, to describe various types of people who have a naturalistic worldview, without casting that worldview as a negative response to religion (as the terms atheist... John Brockman (born 1941 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a literary agent and author specializing in scientific literature. ... Greedy reductionism is a term coined by Daniel Dennett, in the book Darwins Dangerous Idea, to distinguish between acceptable and erroneous forms of reductionism. ... Evolutionary psychology (abbreviated EP) is a theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain mental and psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, i. ... Inclusive fitness encompasses conventional Darwinian fitness with the addition of behaviors that contribute to an organism’s individual fitness through altruism. ... In evolutionary biology, kin selection refers to changes in gene frequency across generations that are driven at least in part by interactions between related individuals, and this forms much of the conceptual basis of the theory of social evolution. ...

Partial bibliography

• Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology (MIT Press 1981) (ISBN 0-262-54037-1)
• Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting (MIT Press 1984) — on free will and determinism (ISBN 0-262-04077-8)
• The Mind's I (Bantam, Reissue edition 1985, with Douglas Hofstadter) (ISBN 0-553-34584-2)
• Content and Consciousness (Routledge & Kegan Paul Books Ltd; 2nd ed edition January 1986) (ISBN 0-7102-0846-4)
• The Intentional Stance (MIT Press; reprint edition 1989) (ISBN 0-262-54053-3)
• Consciousness Explained (Back Bay Books 1992) (ISBN 0-316-18066-1)
• Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition 1996) (ISBN 0-684-82471-X)
• Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness (Basic Books 1997) (ISBN 0-465-07351-4)
• Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds (Representation and Mind) (MIT Press 1998) (ISBN 0-262-04166-9) — A Collection of Essays 1984–1996
• Freedom Evolves (Viking Press 2003) (ISBN 0-670-03186-0)
• Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness (Jean Nicod Lectures) (Bradford Books 2005) (ISBN 0-262-04225-8)
• Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (Penguin Group 2006) (ISBN 0-670-03472-X)
• Dove nascono le idee", Di Renzo Editore, 2006, Italy
• Neuroscience and Philosophy: Brain, Mind, and Language (Columbia University Press, New York, 2007) (ISBN 978-0-231-14044-7), co-authored with Maxwell Bennett, Peter Hacker, and John Searle

Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology (MIT Press 1981) is a book by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting (1984) is a book by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett, which discusses the philosophical issues of free will and determinism. ... This article is about the year. ... Free-Will is a Japanese independent record label founded in 1986. ... Determinism is the philosophical proposition that every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. ... The Minds I: Fantasies and reflections on self and soul (ISBN 0-553-34584-2) is a 1981 book composed and arranged by Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett. ... This article is about the year. ... Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945 in New York, New York) is an American academic. ... Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ... Cover of Consciousness Explained Consciousness Explained (published 1991) is a controversial book by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett which attempts to explain how consciousness arises from interaction of physical and cognitive processes in the brain. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... cover Darwins Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (1995) is a controversial book by Daniel Dennett that argues that Darwinian processes are the central organising force not only in biology (which is not controversial), but also in most other aspects of the Universe, including the human mind... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Freedom Evolves is a 2003 popular science and philosophy book by Daniel Dennett. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Peter M.S. Hacker (born 15 July 1939 in London) is a British philosopher. ... John Rogers Searle (born July 31, 1932 in Denver, Colorado) is the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and is noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and consciousness, on the characteristics of socially constructed versus physical realities, and on practical reason. ...

Texts on Dennett

• "Dennett: Reconciling Science and Our Self-Conception" Matthew Elton (Polity Press, 2003) (ISBN 0-7456-2117-1)
• Daniel Dennett edited by Andrew Brook and Don Ross (Cambridge University Press 2000) (ISBN 0-521-00864-6)
• Dennett's Philosophy: A Comprehensive Assessment edited by Don Ross, Andrew Brook and David Thompson (MIT Press 2000) (ISBN 0-262-18200-9)
• Dennett, among others, is discussed in John Brockman's The Third Culture.
• On Dennett John Symons (Wadsworth Publishing Company 2000) (ISBN 0-534-57632-X)
• Dennett is mentioned on numerous occasions in David J. Chalmers' The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory, as Chalmers discusses his theory (ISBN 0-19-511789-1).
• Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience, P. Hacker and M.R. Bennett (Blackwell, Oxford, and Malden, Mass., 2003) (ISBN 1-4051-0855-X) has an appendix devoted to a strong critique of Dennett's philosophy of mind

The Third Culture is the title of a book by John Brockman which discusses the work of several well-known thinkers who are directly communicating their new, sometimes provocative, ideas to the general public. ... David John Chalmers (born April 20, 1966) is a philosopher in the area of philosophy of mind. ... Peter M.S. Hacker (born 15 July 1939 in London) is a British philosopher. ...

Select quote

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.' This article is about biological evolution. ... sBold text == Headline text ==please edit this page!!!!! omething Gisela does not have These where evolved into our heads. ... In linguistics, syntax is the study of the rules, or patterned relations, that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. ... In general, semantics (from the Greek semantikos, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ...

– Daniel Dennett, Brainchildren

See also

• Cartesian materialism
• Greedy reductionism
• Heterophenomenology
• Intentional stance
• List of Jean Nicod Prize laureates
• Memetics
• Multiple drafts theory of consciousness

Objects experienced are represented within the mind of the observer In philosophy of mind, Cartesian materialism is the idea that at some place (or places) in the brain, there is some set of information that directly corresponds to our conscious experience. ... Greedy reductionism is a term coined by Daniel Dennett, in the book Darwins Dangerous Idea, to distinguish between acceptable and erroneous forms of reductionism. ... According to Dennett, heterophenomonology (phenomenology of another not oneself), is the process in which you take the vocal sounds emanating from the subjects’ mouths (and your own mouth) and interpret them! He goes on to assert that the total set of details of heterophenomenology, plus all the data we... The Intentional Stance is a theory of mental content proposed, developed and championed by the American philosopher Daniel C. Dennett. ... The Jean Nicod Prize is awarded annually in Paris to a leading philosopher of mind or philosophically oriented cognitive scientist. ... Memetics is an approach to evolutionary models of information transfer based on the concept of the meme. ... Daniel Dennetts Multiple Drafts Theory or Model of Consciousness is a physical theory of consciousness based upon the proposal that the brain acts as an information processor. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Daniel Dennett

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General pages

• Daniel C. Dennett's homepage at Tufts University
• The Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University
• Scientific American Frontiers Profile: Daniel Dennett
• Edge/Third Culture: Daniel C. Dennett
• Searchable bibliography of Dennett's works
• Daniel Dennett multimedia files

Interviews and biographies

• 'The Semantic Engineer' — a biographical essay from The Guardian, April 17, 2004.
• The Philosophers Magazine: Philosopher of the Month, April 2003: Dan Dennett
• Radio interview about Intelligent Design on Philosophy Talk, January 2006.
• Interview with Dennett at Monsters and Critics
• Article about Dennett's naturalistic worldview from the New York Times, July 2003
• Pulling Our Own Strings — Reason magazine interviews Dennett.
• Video interview with Robert Wright at MeaningOfLife.tv
• The Atheism Tapes, program 6, transcript of an extended interview with Dennett for the Jonathan Miller BBC TV series, 2004.
• Point of Inquiry, March 10, 2006 audio interview with Daniel Dennett on "Breaking the Spell".
• A Glorious Accident: Understanding Our Place in the Cosmic Puzzle, a PBS documentary and book interviewing 6 leading thinkers, Dennett among them. [6][7]

The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... Philosophy Talk is a talk radio program co-hosted by John Perry and Kenneth Taylor, who are professors at Stanford University. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The libertarian Reason Magazine dedicated an issue to Ayn Rands influence one hundred years after her birth. ... Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller, CBE (born 21 July 1934) is a British neurologist, theatre and opera director, television presenter, humourist and sculptor. ...

Reviews

• The God Genome — A highly critical review of Dennett's latest book Breaking the Spell, by Leon Wieseltier.
• Religion and science — A response to Leon Wieseltier by James Brookfield.
• Dennett and the Darwinizing of Free Will — A review of Dennett's book Freedom Evolves, by David P. Barash.
• Review in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy (pp. 295–298) — A review of Dennett's book Freedom Evolves, by Jasper Doomen.

Other

• Exchange with philosopher Michael Ruse on science and religion.
• Video of Dennett's response to the claims made in The Purpose Driven Life by Pastor Rick Warren. Presented after a talk by Warren at the TED Conference February 2006 in Monterey, CA. 26 mins.
• Dan Dennett: Ants, terrorism, and the awesome power of memes TED, Feb. 2002

v • d • e Daniel Dennett
Concepts	Greedy reductionism · Heterophenomenology · Intentional stance · Intuition pump · Multiple Drafts Model
Selected works	Brainstorms · The Mind's I · Elbow Room · Consciousness Explained · Darwin's Dangerous Idea · Freedom Evolves · Breaking the Spell