Dennett and the “Little People” #3

Here (#3) below is the David Hamill piece from the Free Thought Prophet blog that triggered the two … previous (#1) … posts (#2) as well as a lot of comments and tweets. Most of my earlier thoughts concerned the Jerry Coyne post given as a reference and the linked Dan Dennett Big Think video. … Continue reading “Dennett and the “Little People” #3″

Dennett and the “Little People” – Round#2

Recasting the arguments from the previous post, it’s comments – and a twitter thread of disagreements. How this started: Public tweet – FTP – recommending “Brother Hamill’s great blog”. Public response – Me – a two word response “[great, but] wrong, though”. All arguments / debates start with a gap or a point of contention. … Continue reading “Dennett and the “Little People” – Round#2″

Dennett and the “Little People”

I came across a twitter thread of Free Thought Prophet (FTP, otherwise anon) recommending a blog post by John Hamill (Atheist Ireland National Committee) about Dennett’s position on free-will. FTP I know as a knockabout humorous commentator in the space occupied by the four horsemen. As a rationalist, atheist, humanist myself, “free-thought” is the traditional tag … Continue reading “Dennett and the “Little People””

Closing Out Recent Dennett Links

Mentioned bookmarking amid the chaos a couple of posts ago and I still have two three Dennett bookmarks unreviewed. Hell yeah! I thought when I saw the Prospect link with this in the title … “The electronic age has triggered epistemological chaos” … and bookmarked the piece for a longer read later. I needn’t have … Continue reading “Closing Out Recent Dennett Links”

Mornington Crescent with Ian Stewart, Doug Hofstadter and Dan Dennett

Just had a weird reading-linked-articles (Tennis-Elbow-Foot / Cow-Lake-Bomb / Rock-Paper-Scissors) experience: Ian Stewart is a popular maths writer I’ve enjoyed, but probably barely referenced here other than as the author of “Does God Play Dice? – The Mathematics of Chaos“. I was also aware that the “non-game” Finchley Central was a forerunner to ISIHAC‘s Mornington Crescent, … Continue reading “Mornington Crescent with Ian Stewart, Doug Hofstadter and Dan Dennett”

Dennett – Does He or Doesn’t He?

Is he a scientist or is he a philosopher? He’s a philosopher. His contributions to science (and anything else) are philosophical. He’s learned a great deal from science and is very pro-science. Some, but not so many, scientists appreciate philosophical input or explicitly concern themselves with the philosophical underpinnings of their subject. Is he a “four … Continue reading “Dennett – Does He or Doesn’t He?”

Dennett’s Speculative Bet in “From Bacteria to Bach and Back”

At the time of writing this post, I’m still not quite finished my final thorough read of Dennett’s From Bacteria to Bach and Back (“B2BnB”) and, apart from his focus on “words” in linguistic development, I’d still say the whole is an improvement – a consolidation, clarification and most importantly an evolution – of his … Continue reading “Dennett’s Speculative Bet in “From Bacteria to Bach and Back””

Dennett – An Eternal Golden Braid

I’m a great fan of Dan Dennett, and have probably read just about everything he’s ever written. Apart from his “Consciousness Explained” which failed to live up to its title – “hardly!” I commented at the time – I’ve pretty much gone along with Dan on his own evolving understanding of evolutionary consciousness. He’s part of … Continue reading “Dennett – An Eternal Golden Braid”