Daniel Dennett
Philosopher and cognitive scientist. Breaking the Spell (2006) examined religion as a natural, evolving human phenomenon.
Ideas
- The intentional stance
- Treat something as a rational agent with beliefs and goals when that predicts its behaviour well, whether it is a person, a chess program or a thermostat.
- Multiple drafts
- Consciousness is not one show in a central theatre. The brain runs many parallel drafts of what is happening.
- Darwin's universal acid
- Evolution by natural selection eats through traditional ideas about design, mind and meaning, and everything must be rebuilt with it.
- Religion as a natural phenomenon
- Breaking the Spell studies religion like any other product of evolution and culture.
In their words
“There is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination.”
Start with
- Consciousness Explained (1991)
- Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)
- Freedom Evolves (2003)
- Breaking the Spell (2006)
