Thinker · TH-0113
Daniel Dennett
Daniel Dennett was an American philosopher who taught for decades at Tufts University and wrote widely on mind, consciousness, evolution and free will. He…
Also known as Daniel Clement Dennett
1942 – 2024 · Boston; Oxford; Tufts University
Traditions: Analytic
Daniel Dennett was an American philosopher who taught for decades at Tufts University and wrote widely on mind, consciousness, evolution and free will. He argued that ascribing beliefs and desires is a matter of taking the 'intentional stance' towards a system whose behaviour it predicts well. In consciousness studies he denied that qualia as usually conceived exist, and he defended a naturalistic, compatibilist view of human freedom.
Key ideas
- Having beliefs and desires is a matter of being reliably predictable from the intentional stance.
- Qualia, as usually conceived, do not exist; intuitions about them are unreliable.
- Consciousness is not a single theatre but parallel 'multiple drafts' in the brain.
- Natural selection explains design, and free will worth wanting is compatible with determinism.
Major works
- Brainstorms (1978)
- The Intentional Stance (1987)
- Consciousness Explained (1991)
- Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)
In the conversation
- Question Eliminative materialism: how can anyone claim that beliefs don’t exist?
- Discussion I caught myself apologising to the chatbot that took over half my job
- Question My daughter says the thermostat wants the room warmer. Is she wrong?
- Discussion Frank Jackson gave up on Mary. Should the rest of us?
- Reading group Reading group: Gould and Lewontin, “The Spandrels of San Marco” (1979)
- Discussion Does a language model mean anything by what it writes?
- Reading group Reading group: Searle’s “Minds, Brains, and Programs” with the replies, over three weeks
- Debate Illusionism is the only view of consciousness that takes neuroscience seriously
- Reading group Reading group: Nagel’s bat, Chalmers’s hard problem and Dennett’s case against qualia
In the Coordinates
The questions of philosophy where Daniel Dennett takes a place, from The Coordinates of Thought.
- 1.3.3 Intentionality How can one thing be about another thing?
- 1.3.4 Qualia and the Hard Problem Why isn't it all dark inside?
- 6.17 Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence What would a machine have to do to count as thinking?