I note with sadness the death of Daniel Dennett — who, whether you agreed with him or not (I did some of each over the years), was a brilliant thinker, a tremendously gifted writer, and a man of insatiable curiosity and outsized personality.
In five different areas — philosophy of mind, free will, scientific materialism, evolutionary theory, and religion — Daniel Dennett was a huge influence on my own intellectual development. This was not because I ended up persuaded of the truth of his positions (for years I was, regarding some of these topics, though not any longer) — but because he always did such a splendid job of defining, framing, sharpening and clarifying the essential questions, which is exactly what philosophers are supposed to do. I, and many many others, owe him a substantial debt of gratitude for that. (My first encounter with him was his book Consciousness Explained, which I read when it came out in 1987, and I subsequently read most of his other books, and many of his published papers.)
Dr. Dennett had been on my mind just this past week, because he had very recently given an interview to Jordan Peterson that I’ve been meaning to watch. You can find it here.
P.S. I’m sure my friend Bill Vallicella, the Maverick Philosopher, will have something to say about Dennett’s passing, and I’ll link to it here when he does.
P.P.S. I just ran across someone on X called “Zoomer Alcibiades” who remarked that “Daniel Dennett has died, but as he had no qualia in the first place this is a relatively minor change for him.” (Harsh, but fair.)
One Comment
Sad to see him pass. I, too, read some of his books. But “Consciousness Explained” was a failure, and ultimately consciousness is a mystery.
I am sometimes inclined to go with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s noösphere.