Daniel Dennett 1942 – 2024
Daniel Clement Dennett was an American philosopher of mind, philosopher of biology, and longtime professor at Tufts University. A pupil of Gilbert Ryle, he developed an influential functionalist account of mental phenomena, defended a compatibilist conception of free will, and became a leading philosophical interpreter of evolutionary biology and cognitive science. Consciousness Explained, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Freedom Evolves, and From Bacteria to Bach and Back set out his vision of mind and meaning as the products of a long natural history. He was also one of the most prominent public defenders of secular naturalism in the early twenty-first century.
Key facts
- Nationality
- American
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Daniel Dennett:
“Consciousness is, on closer inspection, a bag of tricks performed by the brain.”
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Attributed to Daniel Dennett:
“Free will is real, but it is not what tradition says it is.”
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Attributed to Daniel Dennett:
“Darwin's idea is a universal acid that eats through every traditional concept it touches.”
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Attributed to Daniel Dennett:
“There is no such thing as philosophy-free science; only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination.”
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Attributed to Daniel Dennett:
“If you have a good argument, you do not need to misrepresent your opponent's view.”