Daniel C. Dennett.Luis Grañena
The mind is nothing more than “a collection of computational processes, like those of a computer, developed on a carbon basis.” The popular “I”, “a ‘narrative focus’, a very practical fiction that allows us to understand various neural data streams integrate.” “The soul consists of many small robots”, that would be our neurons. They are phrases and concepts coined by Daniel C. Dennett (Boston, 1942), one of the most famous and controversial philosophers of today, famous for his crusade against religions that he accuses of producing fanatics. His atheistic proselytism – which is not very effective in the family, as his sister is a priestess of a Christian church – has led to him being counted among the so-called “four horsemen of the anti-apocalypse”, along with the late Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris , but the scope of his thinking is much larger. Dennett studied the nature of consciousness from an evolutionary perspective and introduced new ideas into philosophy in understandable language.
As professor emeritus of philosophy at Tufts University (Massachusetts), where he has taught for half a century, and director of its Center for Cognitive Studies, he is known for his skills as a debater and for the informative scope of the twenty books he has published. With the final essay, a memoir entitled “I’ve Been Thinking,” he wants to state that what is really exciting is “the magic of life as evolution, the magic of our brains, that “evolves between “our ears,” as he recently confessed to the New York Times. Therefore, “miracles are not necessary, only understanding the world as it really is.”
More information
The son of a historian and diplomat and a professor dedicated to publishing, Dennett seemed destined for academia from the start. He graduated in philosophy from Harvard University and received his doctorate from Oxford University with a groundbreaking work, Content and Consciousness (Gedisa, 1996), a work with several revised editions that has been translated into various languages. His curiosity also led him to try countless activities at a young age. He practices drawing and sculpture, is a jazz pianist, an experienced navigator, a computer engineer and a successful lecturer. He is married and the father of two adopted children, who have given him five grandchildren. For many years he and his wife farmed in Maine, where they made their own cranberry liqueur and apple brandy.
If you would like to support the production of quality journalism, subscribe to us.
Subscribe to
In his memoirs, Dennett not only summarizes his philosophical and scientific adventures, but also makes a confession. He modestly talks about the pain of the loss of the child that he and his wife were expecting shortly after marriage, or the severe heart attack that brought him to the brink of death and which was overcome thanks to the artificial aorta that he received. placed in 2006. This year saw the publication of one of his most controversial books: Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (Katz Editores), published in Spanish in 2009, a work in which Dennett explained religion as a byproduct of our biological evolution. “Those were times when the discussion between evolutionists and creationists reached its peak,” emphasizes Alejandro Katz, director of the Argentine publishing house, via email. “Although it was exclusively a discussion of the Anglo-Saxon area, the ideas and arguments developed by Dennett were also of interest in the Spanish-speaking world.”
With the long white beard of a biblical patriarch, Dennett not only insults believers, he also angers his colleagues by denying the very basis of the philosophy of mind. “The question arises as to whether there is something inexpressible in the subjective experience of sensations, that aspect of consciousness technically known as qualia,” says philosopher Josefa Toribio, professor at the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA ), by email. ) from the University of Barcelona, a long-time friend of hers. For Dennett, “the very idea of qualia, as commonly understood, is illusory.” Toribio praises the American philosopher’s ability to “present complex philosophical ideas in a way that is understandable to lay audiences,” and highlights “his commitment to “Naturalism, its integration of scientific knowledge into philosophical debates, and its ability to question wisdom.” “Conventional with innovative and suggestive ideas.”
One of the topics that most interests and concerns him is artificial intelligence, and he is in favor of quarantining the findings of this new technology before they are applied on a massive scale. Progress is exponential and he has no doubt that conscious robots can be created in a few decades, something he considers undesirable. After all, we don’t even know what evolutionary benefits consciousness has brought us, assuming it has any function, as the philosopher admitted in an interview published three years ago in Tufts Now, his university magazine. “Perhaps it is nothing more than a source of sorrow,” he ventured. “Perhaps it has become a kind of baggage that we have to carry around. Or maybe there is something that benefits us, and awareness is the price we pay for it.”
Sign up for the weekly Ideas newsletter here.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_