Daniel Dennett
American philosopher and cognitive scientist
Dennett's father was killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia in 1947, after which his mother took him back to Massachusetts.[1] He received his BA in philosophy at Harvard University in 1963 and his DPhil at the University of Oxford in 1965.[2][3] Dennett saw evolution by natural selection as an algorithmic process.[4] Dennett's academic career began at the University of California, Irvine, where he taught from 1965 until 1971; he then spent the next five decades teaching at Tufts University.[5]
With Douglas Hofstadter, Dennett was both co-editor and co-author of the 1981 volume titled The Mind's I.[6]
Quick Facts
- Region
- Western philosophy
- Era
- Contemporary philosophy
- Birth name
- Daniel Clement Dennett III
- Born
- 28 March 1942
- Birthplace
- Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Died
- 19 April 2024
- Place of death
- Portland, Maine, U.S.
- School of thought
- Analytic philosophy
- New Atheism
- Materialism
Facts from the source article.
What the cited sources add
The Tufts Daily obituary noted that Dennett established and directed the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts and was key in establishing Tufts' first computer science program.[7] Smith also said Dennett did more than anyone to make Tufts recognized worldwide.[7] Dennett contended that "comprehension is only made possible by the arrival on the scene quite recently of a new kind of evolutionary replicator: memes".[8] In a Philosophy Now review of From Bacteria to Bach and Back, Dennett is described as arguing that memes—units of cultural information—undergo evolution by natural selection, analogous to genes.[8]
References
- Wikipedia, "Daniel Dennett" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Feuer, "A Dead Spy, a Daughter's Questions and the C.I.A.", 2007-10-23; "Daniel Dennett: Autobiography (Part 1) | Issue 68 | Philosophy Now"; Brown, "The semantic engineer", The Guardian, April 17, 2004; Feuer, "A Dead Spy, a Daughter's Questions and the C.I.A.", 2007-10-23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Daniel Dennett" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; ; Dennett, "I've Been Thinking", W.W. Norton & Company, 3 October 2023; Mudrick, "Daniel Dennett obituary: 'New atheism' philosopher who sparked debate on consciousness", Nature, 17 May 2024, p. 997 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Daniel Dennett" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Spencer, "In-depth interview with Daniel Dennett", 2013; ; Dennett, "The mind and the brain: introspective description in the light of neurological findings: intentionality", Oxford University Research Archive, 1965 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Daniel Dennett" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, Simon & Schuster, 1996, pp. 52–60, .; "The Evolution of Life on Earth", Scientific American (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Daniel Dennett" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kandell, "Daniel C. Dennett, Widely Read and Fiercely Debated Philosopher, Dies at 82", The New York Times, 2024-04-19; ; Prather, "Daniel Dennett, Tufts professor emeritus and renowned philosopher, passes away at 82", The Tufts Daily, May 15, 2024; "Daniel Dennett | Center for Cognitive Studies"; Dennett, "Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist", Vintage Books, 2005 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Daniel Dennett" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Introducing Philosophy", Oxford University Press, 2020, p. 330 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Prather, "Daniel Dennett, Tufts professor emeritus and renowned philosopher, passes away at 82", The Tufts Daily, May 15, 2024. facts only, no text reused. tuftsdaily.com
- Stone, "From Bacteria to Bach and Back by Daniel Dennett Issue 129", Philosophy Now, 2018. facts only, no text reused. philosophynow.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Daniel Dennett (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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