Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28, 1942) is a prominent American philosopher. Dennett's research centers on philosophy of mind and philosophy of science, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. Daniel Dennett - Biography. Daniel Dennett received his B.A. in philosophy from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) in 1963. In 1965, he received his D.Phil. in philosophy from University of Oxford (Oxford, England), where he studied under the famed philosopher Gilbert Ry ...

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Daniel Dennett received his B.A. in philosophy from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) in 1963. In 1965, he received his D.Phil. in philosophy from University of Oxford (Oxford, England), where he studied under the famed philosopher Gilbert Ryle. Dennett is currently (August 2005) employed as Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, University Professor, and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies (with Ray Jackendoff) at Tufts University (Medford, MA). He gave the John Locke Lectures at the University of Oxford in 1983, the Gavin ...

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Daniel Dennett, Daniel Dennett - Biography, Daniel Dennett - Selected works, Daniel Dennett - Texts on Dennett, Daniel Dennett - Select Quote

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Darwin's 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 (see Neural Darwinism). Dennett regards Darwinism as a "universal acid" that eats through virtually all traditional beliefs, especially Christianity. He calls Darwin's theory of evolution ...

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Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to ourselves. The phrase "up to ourselves" is vague, and, just like free will itself, admits of a variety of interpretations. Because of this ambiguity, the utility of the concept of free will is questioned by some. Several logically independent questions can be asked about free will. Free will - Determinism versus indeterminism. Determinism holds that each state of affairs is necessitated (determined) by the states of aff ...

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Free will - Determinism versus indeterminism Free will - Moral responsibility Free will - Compatibilist theories and the could-have-done-otherwise principle Free will - The science of free will
Free will - Neurology and psychiatry Free will - Determinism and emergent behaviour
Free will - In theology
Free will - In Christian thought Free will - In Jewish thought

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Qualia - Daniel Dennett. In his paper "Quining Qualia" and his book Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett offers an argument against qualia which attempts to show that the above definition breaks down when we try to make a practical application of it. In a series of thought experiments which he calls "intuition pumps", he brings qualia into the world of neurosurgery, clinical psychology, and psychological experimentation. His argument attempts to show that once the concept of qualia is so imported, it tu ...

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Qualia, Qualia - Definition of qualia, Qualia - Arguments for qualia, Qualia - The knowledge argument, Qualia - Arguments against qualia, Qualia - Daniel Dennett, Qualia - Paul Churchland, Qualia - Further reading and bibliography

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Daniel Dennett identifies four properties which are commonly ascribed to qualia; that is, qualia are: ineffable; that is, they cannot be communicated, or apprehended by any other means than direct experience. intrinsic; that is, they are non-relational properties, which do not change depending on the experience's relation to other things. private; that is, all interpersonal comparisons of qualia are systematically impossible. directly or immediately apprehensible in consciousness; that is, to experience a quale is to know one experiences a quale, and to kno ...

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Qualia, Qualia - Definition of qualia, Qualia - Arguments for qualia, Qualia - The knowledge argument, Qualia - Arguments against qualia, Qualia - Daniel Dennett, Qualia - Paul Churchland, Qualia - Further reading and bibliography

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Arguments for qualia generally come in the form of thought experiments which are designed to lead one to the conclusion that qualia exist. For example, the inverted spectrum thought experiment invites us to imagine that we wake up one morning, and find that for some unknown reason all the colors in the world have been reversed. Furthermore, we discover that no physical changes have occurred in our brains or bodies that would explain this phenomenon. Supporters of qualia argue that since we can imagine this happening without contradiction, it ...

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Qualia, Qualia - Definition of qualia, Qualia - Arguments for qualia, Qualia - The knowledge argument, Qualia - Arguments against qualia, Qualia - Daniel Dennett, Qualia - Paul Churchland, Qualia - Further reading and bibliography

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In simplified form, clay theory runs as follows: Clays form naturally from silicates in solution. Clay crystals, as other crystals, preserve their external formal arrangement as they grow, snap and grow further. Masses of clay crystals of a particular external form may happen to affect their environment in ways which affect their chances of further replication - for example, a 'stickier' clay crystal is more likely to silt a stream bed, creating an environment conducive to further sedimentation. It is conceivable that such effects could exte ...

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Graham Cairns-Smith, Graham Cairns-Smith - Clay theory

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Dennett's theory has received some criticism. At least part of this is because of the tone of his presentation. As one grudging supporter admits, "there is much in this book that is disputable. And Dennett is at times aggravatingly smug and confident about the merits of his arguments [...]. All in all Dennett's book is annoying, frustrating, insightful, provocative and above all annoying." (Korb 1993) Much of the criticism asserts that Dennett's theory attacks the wrong target, failing to explain what it claims to. Some even parody th ...

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Multiple Drafts Model, Multiple Drafts Model - Critical Responses to Multiple Drafts

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Douglas Hofstadter - Books. The books published by Hofstadter are (the ISBNs refer to paperback editions, where available): Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (ISBN 0465026567) Metamagical Themas (ISBN 0465045669) (collection of Scientific American columns) Ambigrammi: un microcosmo ideale per lo studio della creatività (in Italian only) Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies (ISBN 0465024750) Rhapsody on a Theme by ...

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Douglas Hofstadter, Douglas Hofstadter - Biography, Douglas Hofstadter - Work, Douglas Hofstadter - Published works, Douglas Hofstadter - Books, Douglas Hofstadter - Papers, Douglas Hofstadter - Involvement in other books, Douglas Hofstadter - Miscellaneous, Douglas Hofstadter - Students

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If the mind is not seen as a "mysterious" substance, and it is assumed there are only mental events and that "the mind" is no more than a series of mental events, then it is possible to inquire about the relation between mind and body in terms of the relation between mental events and physical events. One can ask: are mental events completely different from physical events, so that you can't explain what mental events are in terms of physical events; or are mental events somehow explainable as being identical with certain physi ...

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Mind-body problem, Mind-body problem - Philosophical perspectives, Mind-body problem - What science has to say

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Douglas Hofstadter - Books. The books published by Hofstadter are (the ISBNs refer to paperback editions, where available): Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (ISBN 0465026567) Metamagical Themas (ISBN 0465045669) (collection of Scientific American columns) Ambigrammi: un microcosmo ideale per lo studio della creatività (in Italian only) Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies (ISBN 0465024750) Rhapsody on a Theme by ...

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Douglas Hofstadter, Douglas Hofstadter - Biography, Douglas Hofstadter - Work, Douglas Hofstadter - Published works, Douglas Hofstadter - Books, Douglas Hofstadter - Papers, Douglas Hofstadter - Involvement in other books, Douglas Hofstadter - Miscellaneous, Douglas Hofstadter - Students, Douglas Hofstadter - Hofstadter's Law

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The theological doctrine of divine foreknowledge is often alleged to be in conflict with free will. After all, if God knows exactly what will happen, right down to every choice one makes, how can one's choices be free? God's already true or timelessly true knowledge about one's choices seems to constrain one's freedom. This problem is related to the Aristotelian problem of the sea-battle: tomorrow there will or will not be a sea-battle. If there will be one, then it was true yesterday that there would be one. Then it would be necessary that ...

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Free will, Free will - Determinism versus indeterminism, Free will - Moral responsibility, Free will - Compatibilist theories and the could-have-done-otherwise principle, Free will - The science of free will, Free will - Neurology and psychiatry, Free will - Determinism and emergent behaviour, Free will - In theology, Free will - In Christian thought, Free will - In Jewish thought

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At Indiana University at Bloomington he co-authored with Melanie Mitchell and others, a cognitive model of "high-level perception", Copycat, and several other models of analogy making and cognition. The Copycat project has since grown into 'Metacat' and has been worked on by Hofstadter and several assistants. A 2002 overview can be found here (PDF). Hofstadter has not published much in conventional academic journals (except during his early physics career, see below), preferring the freedom of expression of large books of collected id ...

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Douglas Hofstadter, Douglas Hofstadter - Biography, Douglas Hofstadter - Work, Douglas Hofstadter - Published works, Douglas Hofstadter - Books, Douglas Hofstadter - Papers, Douglas Hofstadter - Involvement in other books, Douglas Hofstadter - Miscellaneous, Douglas Hofstadter - Students

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The son of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Robert Hofstadter, he received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Oregon in 1975. As of 2005, he is a College Professor of Cognitive Science and Computer Science; Adjunct Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, Philosophy, Comparative Literature, and Psychology at Indiana University at Bloomington, where he directs the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition. Hofstadter is multilingual; he spent a few years in Sweden in the mid-1960s, where he learned Swedish. In addition ...

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Douglas Hofstadter, Douglas Hofstadter - Biography, Douglas Hofstadter - Work, Douglas Hofstadter - Published works, Douglas Hofstadter - Books, Douglas Hofstadter - Papers, Douglas Hofstadter - Involvement in other books, Douglas Hofstadter - Miscellaneous, Douglas Hofstadter - Students

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Most neuroscientists believe in the identity of mind and brain, a position that may be considered related to materialism and physicalism, though there is a subtle difference; namely, that postulating an identity between mind and brain (or more specifically, particular types of neuronal interactions) does not necessarily imply that mental events are 'nothing more' than physical events, but rather is more akin to saying that physical events and mental events are different aspects of a more fundamental mental-physical substratum which can be per ...

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Mind-body problem, Mind-body problem - Philosophical perspectives, Mind-body problem - What science has to say

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The son of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Robert Hofstadter, he received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Oregon in 1975. As of 2005, he is a College Professor of Cognitive Science and Computer Science; Adjunct Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, Philosophy, Comparative Literature, and Psychology at Indiana University Bloomington, where he directs the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition. Hofstadter is multilingual; he spent a few years in Sweden in the mid-1960s, where he learned Swedish. In addition, h ...

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Douglas Hofstadter, Douglas Hofstadter - Biography, Douglas Hofstadter - Work, Douglas Hofstadter - Published works, Douglas Hofstadter - Books, Douglas Hofstadter - Papers, Douglas Hofstadter - Involvement in other books, Douglas Hofstadter - Miscellaneous, Douglas Hofstadter - Students, Douglas Hofstadter - Hofstadter's Law

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At Indiana University Bloomington he co-authored with Melanie Mitchell and others, a cognitive model of "high-level perception", Copycat, and several other models of analogy making and cognition. The Copycat project has since grown into 'Metacat' and 'Magnificat' and has been worked on by Hofstadter and several assistants. A 2002 overview can be found here (PDF). Other new models based on the Copycat 'FARGitecture' include SeekWell and SeqSee, which model congition and analogy in musica ...

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Douglas Hofstadter, Douglas Hofstadter - Biography, Douglas Hofstadter - Work, Douglas Hofstadter - Published works, Douglas Hofstadter - Books, Douglas Hofstadter - Papers, Douglas Hofstadter - Involvement in other books, Douglas Hofstadter - Miscellaneous, Douglas Hofstadter - Students, Douglas Hofstadter - Hofstadter's Law

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Determinism holds that each state of affairs is necessitated (determined) by the states of affairs that preceded it, an extension of cause and effect. Indeterminism holds this proposition to be incorrect, and that there are events which are not entirely determined by previous states of affairs. The idea of determinism is sometimes illustrated by the story of Laplace's demon, who knows all the facts about the past and present and all the natural laws that govern our world, and us ...

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Free will, Free will - Determinism versus indeterminism, Free will - Moral responsibility, Free will - Compatibilist theories and the could-have-done-otherwise principle, Free will - The science of free will, Free will - Neurology and psychiatry, Free will - Determinism and emergent behaviour, Free will - In theology, Free will - In Christian thought, Free will - In Jewish thought

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