Daniel Dennett on consciousness
Consciousness is an intellectual illusion created by us because we're so darn reflective.
Daniel Dennett has been described as "one of the most important philosophers of our time" as well as being coined the "devil philosopher".
He is best known for his provocative and controversial arguments that human consciousness and free will are the result of physical processes in the brain.
Regardless of how he's known, his popularity was evident when he delivered the Wallace Wurth Lecture to a packed out auditorium at UNSW Sydney.
The podcast was recorded live at The Wallace Wurth Lecture: Daniel Dennett on Consciousness in the Sir John Clancy Auditorium at UNSW Sydney, Kensington.
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Daniel Dennett
Daniel Dennett
Daniel Dennett is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist. His work explores philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. Dennett is the co-director of the Centre for Cognitive Studies and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University.
He is an atheist and secularist, a member of the Secular Coalition for America advisory board, and is known as one of the 'Four Horsemen of New Atheism', along with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens.
As well as being widely cited by academic peers, he has written extensively for a general audience with books including:
- Consciousness Explained (1992)
- Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (1996)
- Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness (1997)
- Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (2006)
- From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds (2017).
In 2014, after more than 40 summers hobby farming in Maine, he sold his farm and bought a house on an island in Maine, where he can pursue less strenuous activities while continuing his research.
