Word: dennetts
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...always open to the possibility that the meme might one day be developed into a proper hypothesis of the human mind. I did not know, before I read Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett and then Susan Blackmore's new book, The Meme Machine, how ambitious such a thesis might turn out to be. Dennett vividly evokes the image of the mind as a seething hotbed of memes. He even goes so far as to defend the hypothesis that "human consciousness is itself a huge complex of memes...
Philosopher Daniel Dennett is the author of eight books, most recently Brainchildren: A Collection of Essays...
...Orman Quine, Emerson Hall's own living legend. Quine (rhymes with wine) is one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th Century, as well as a sparkling prose stylist and extremely brilliant guy. Tune in the following Friday, same time, same place, for a reading/booksigning by Daniel Dennett, M.I.T. philosopher and author of (among other things) Consciousness Explained. Creep on out from behind the Veil of Ignorance and enjoy the philosophical treats the Square has to offer...
...Dennett has answers to these critiques. As for the extraness problem, the question of what function consciousness serves: if you're a strict materialist and believe "the mind is the brain," then consciousness must have a function. After all, the brain has a function, and consciousness is the brain. Similarly, turning the water into wine seems a less acute problem if the wine is water...
...people who don't share Dennett's philosophical intuitions, these arguments may seem unintelligible. (It's one thing to say feelings are generated by the brain, which Chalmers and McGinn believe, but what does it even mean to say feelings are the brain?) Still, that doesn't mean Dennett is wrong. Some people share his intuitions and find the thinking of his critics opaque. Consciousness is one of those questions so deep that frequently people with different views don't just fail to convince one another, they fail even to communicate. The unintelligibility is often mutual...