Daniel C. Dennett
Born 28 March 1942 · Died 19 April 2024
From Boston, Massachusetts, United States · Nationality: United States · Writes nonfiction
Daniel Clement Dennett III was an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centered on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science.
Dennett was the co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Dennett was a vocal atheist and secularist, a member of the Secular Coalition for America advisory board, and a member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, as well as an outspoken supporter of the Brights movement. Dennett was referred to as one of the "Four Horsemen of New Atheism", along with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens.
In 1962, Dennett married Susan Bell. They lived in North Andover, Massachusetts, and had a daughter, a son, and six grandchildren. He was an avid sailor. Dennett died of interstitial lung disease at Maine Medical Center on April 19, 2024, at the age of 82.
[source: Wikipedia]
Quotes
“We really have to think of reasoning the way we think of romance, it takes two to tango. There has to be a communication.”
Daniel Dennett in a panel under the title "Can Rationality Be Taught?" at TAM 20 “Animals are not just herbivores or carnivores. They are, in the nice coinage of the psychologist George Miller, informavores.”
Kinds of Minds “Philosophy — in every field of inquiry — is what you have to do until you figure out what questions you should have been asking in the first place.”
Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking “The utility of a thought experiment is inversely proportional to the size of its departures from reality.”
Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking “Philosophers’ Syndrome: mistaking a failure of the imagination for an insight into necessity.”
Consciousness Explained
Quotes from Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Books by Daniel C. Dennett in order
Books by Daniel C. Dennett in the order they were published, from Conversion and Poll Tax in Early Islam (1962) to Louisiana As It Is (2023).
- 1Conversion and Poll Tax in Early Islam
Conversion and Poll Tax in Early Islam1962 - 2Content and Consciousness
Content and Consciousness1969 - 3Brainstorms
Brainstorms1978 - 4The Philosophical LexiconThe Philosophical Lexicon1978
- 5Elbow Room
Elbow Room1984 - 6The Intentional Stance
The Intentional Stance1987 - 7Consciousness Explained
Consciousness Explained1991 - 8Darwin's Dangerous Idea
Darwin's Dangerous Idea1995 - 9Kinds of Minds
Kinds of Minds1996 - 10Brainchildren
Brainchildren1998 - 11The Dennett Quartet
The Dennett Quartet1998 - 12Freedom Evolves
Freedom Evolves2002 - 13Breaking the Spell
Breaking the Spell2004 - 14Sweet Dreams
Sweet Dreams2005 - 15Caught in the Pulpit
Caught in the Pulpit2013 - 16Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking2013 - 17From Bacteria to Bach and Back
From Bacteria to Bach and Back2017 - 18La libertad de acción
La libertad de acción2018 - 19Just DesertsJust Deserts2021
- 20I've Been Thinking
I've Been Thinking2023 - 21Louisiana As It IsLouisiana As It Is2023
- 22La Peligrosa Idea De Darwin
La Peligrosa Idea De Darwin