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Daniel Clement Dennett III
Daniel Clement Dennett III is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist. He was born March 28, 1942 in Boston Massachusetts. He was interested in the state of nature of consciousness and proceeded to write his doctoral thesis on the topic of consciousness. -
Content and Consciousness
He turned his doctoral thesis into a book that discussed the relation between consciousness in the mind and how it works with the body. He believes that consciousness does not separate the universe into things that have consciousness and things that don't have it. Rather some things are more conscious and complex than others however, everything is conscious. (Zan Boag) -
Consciouss Explanation
His second and third books go on to discuss how the mindless process of natural selection accounts for the evolution of the brain and human consciousness. (Encyclopedia Briticennia) Dennett believes that there is not one set place in the brain that all of the senses come together thus there can not be a specific place by which consciousness emerges. -
"Cog"
Dennett along with other scientist attempted to build a robot and develop it to be conscious, while it seemed life like it was not conscious. This robot sparked other scientist to futher research the field in attempt to explain if consciousness could be replicated and what that would mean if it were to happen. -
Darwins Dangerous Ideas
Dennett states in his third book, Darwins Dangerous Idea that natural selection is a list of mindless steps that do not require conscious supervision for biological change or evolution.
However he does reinforce that he does believe biological evolution to be possible its just more of an environmental factor rather than consciousness factor. -
Summary
Dennett went on to research neuroscience and philosophy in attempt to explain linguistic difficulties of describing actions in the brain. He provides us with a controversial discussion about how evolution actually works in relation to the brain and the relationship between the mind and body. He doesn't bring religion into evolution providing a more factual based argument which I feel is important in scientific discussions. He's a bright minded individual and we can learn a lot from his view. -
Citations for events two and three
Newphilosopher.com. (2019). The secret of consciousness, with Daniel C. Dennett | New Philosopher. [online] Available at: https://www.newphilosopher.com/articles/the-secret-of-consciousness-with-daniel-c-dennett/ [Accessed 6 Oct. 2019]. Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). Daniel C. Dennett | American philosopher. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-C-Dennett#ref1082661 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2019]. -
Citation for event four
"Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Darwin’s Dangerous Idea" Critical Survey of Contemporary Fiction Ed. Frank Northen Magill. eNotes.com, Inc. 2005 eNotes.com 6 Oct, 2019 http://www.enotes.com/topics/darwins-dangerous-idea#critical-essays-darwins-dangerous-idea-1