Daniel Dennett: quotes, biography briefly

The main sphere of interests of the scientist lies in the study from the philosophical and at the same time scientific point of view of human consciousness, will and other basic concepts. But what factors and influences formed the philosopher's thinking can be learned from his biography, especially the period of student life.

Excursion to the history

The day of the beginning is to understand his everyday life and environment, because Daniel Dennett, a biography briefly describes a typical life for a philosopher-scientist, was born in Boston in the usual American family of historians. He received his higher education at Harvard. Further development of the scientist's thinking was held at Oxford University under the guidance of Professor Rile. It was under his influence and patronage that Daniel Dennett wrote and defended his thesis, and also published the first book - "Content and Consciousness" - in 1969. His views were certainly influenced by the American period of life, but the British analyst was also close to Dennett, so the book turned out to be a revolutionary one for those times.

Main Achievements

After receiving a Ph.D., the scientist goes to Massachusetts, Tufts University, where he teaches in the specialty to this day. In addition, he reads individual lectures at various universities around the world - from his relatives Harvard and Oxford to Moscow State University. Now the scientist is 74 years old, he is fond of science, sculpture. In 2012 he became an honorary winner of the Erasmus Award for significant contribution to European culture and society.

So, Daniel Dennett, whose biography partly influenced his thinking and statements, wrote many works for his life. The most famous of them are "The Eye of Reason", "Kinds of Mind", Elbow Room, Brainstorms, "Neurology and Philosophy". Many of them are revered among scientists, but, unfortunately, only a few are translated into Russian.

Basics of judgments

The main metaphysical tool in his judgments Daniel Dennett considered human consciousness. He backs up his reasoning with scientific facts from cognitive psychology, cybernetics and microbiology. He also always respects fellow-minded colleagues, but he does not forget to get acquainted with their work, express their opinion and constructively criticize. For example, he wrote a review of Dawkins's book The Selfish Gene. His work shows that the scientist is constantly in the thinking about consciousness, determining in which living beings it is. Daniel Dennett argues that "the presence of knowledge about other people's experiences and thoughts" means the presence of consciousness. The ability to use linguistics and reflection as a "sign of the possession of consciousness", the scientist tries to justify the evolutionary Darwinian theory. Darwin's idea and survival theory of the strongest is used by the philosopher to prove that man is the best in this sphere, because he is able to build theories and to calculate the near future events. As a consequence, we have an "intentional attitude". This concept means that we in advance attribute the essence of feelings, opinions, which could guide his actions. Intentionality strives to achieve the maximum benefit for itself, therefore it is as predictable as possible, although in other aspects its values may be rejected.

In general, a person consists of microrobots, whose role is played by systems of molecules. With animals, we are united by "knowledge of how", thanks to which mechanical actions are carried out in the environment. But a person has an advantage: one can ask questions and reflect on these mechanical knowledge, compare them with others. And you can transfer any information to another person, thereby stimulating the intellect and developing an intentional setting. All this is done with the help of ordinary words, which form new associative "knots" in the cerebral cortex. Sometimes people use written sources of information to free the brain from memory and tag nets, which become a material continuation of thinking. Therefore, for reasonable thinking, there is no significant difference in the use of different sources of information.

Additional areas of reflection

But the problems Daniel Dennett does include one more thought: the intentionality of one person makes it possible for her to manipulate someone else. Therefore, more effective interspecific competition will be in case of hiding valuable information. And the most profitable strategy of behavior is communication and diplomacy - to tell, hiding some details for the sake of making a cunning maneuver. The environment for preserving the omissions must be strong enough and significant for the future. From this it follows that it is the struggle for survival that becomes primary, and the intentionality is secondary. Since the opponent / competitor also has his own intentionality, it turns out that our competition and struggle depends on the idea of the future of another person or the environment in which we compete. In order to "calculate" thoughts about the future of another person, one must already be included in the character environment, that is, be someone calculated. The circle of judgments closes, and Daniel Dennet, whose consciousness gave rise to this theory, can not yet argue and explain where the origins of the sign environment come from. Therefore, his earliest theory still requires improvements and several missing visions in a bunch of Darwinism and consciousness.

Criticism of the scientist

In this theory, his opinion echoes Richard Dawkins, Stephen Pinker, and is opposed to the judgments of Steven Gould and Edward Wilson. Radical adaptationism in the works that Daniel Dennett wrote, gave rise to a lot of criticism among metaphysicians. They called his approach too simplistic and little different from the old trend of behaviorism. He too rudely and superficially explained such concepts as "qualia" (the basis of human perception of things), and other most complex objects in consciousness. The most sharp review of Daniel - "Consciousness, destroyed by an explanation."

Explanation of free will

Atheism and the freedom of the will of man are concepts that Daniel Dennett also drew attention to. Freedom of will in his judgments is not viewed from the point of view of existence, but from the point of view of the need for man. This concept he combines with determinism (cause-effect relations), believing that a deep understanding of causality underlies free will. This direction was called "compabilizm." It is he who is dedicated to the work of Elbow Room.

Correctness of Thinking

The scientist is perhaps understandable not to all metaphysicians, his work is always caused by a lot of scientific disputes and debates. Despite this, he is convinced of his judgments and is working to improve them. Daniel Dennett, whose quotes are popular among atheists, conducts small lectures, where he explains his point of view on faith and religion in general and with examples. He conducts psychological experiments among priests and finds among them atheists who can not admit to themselves. In doing so, he recognizes the difference between God and the supernatural, and also sets a number of leading questions that help determine whether you are a believer or not. One of the recent works - Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking - talks about how to learn to think like a scientist. Daniel Dennett gives such advice:

• Use mistakes, do introspection, and not fall into despair and despondency.
• To question the phrase "of course," which, according to the scientist, indicates the groundlessness of the fact and the desire of the narrator to "shove" the listener with untruthful information as quickly as possible.
• Respect the opponent, show justice and goodwill towards him so that he accepts your criticism.
• Let's answer the rhetorical questions.
• Use in judgments the principle of Occam's razor, cutting off all unnecessary, and thus saving mental ways to prove the fact.
• Rationally use the time, without spending it on empty arguments, especially on ideological grounds.
• Do not use such a concept as "pseudoglubin", it is created only on the basis of incomprehensibility of judgment, and not on its truth and justice.