logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2021
1h 18m

Ep137 - Daniel Dennett | From Bacteria t...

TALKS AT GOOGLE
About this episode

How did we come to have minds?

For centuries, this question has intrigued psychologists, physicists, poets, and philosophers, who have wondered how the human mind developed its unrivaled ability to create, imagine, and explain. Disciples of Darwin have long aspired to explain how consciousness, language, and culture could have appeared through natural selection, blazing promising trails that tend, however, to end in confusion and controversy. Even though our understanding of the inner workings of proteins, neurons, and DNA is deeper than ever before, the matter of how our minds came to be has largely remained a mystery.

That is now changing, says Daniel C. Dennett. In From Bacteria to Bach and Back, his most comprehensive exploration of evolutionary thinking yet, he builds on ideas from computer science and biology to show how a comprehending mind could in fact have arisen from a mindless process of natural selection. Part philosophical whodunit, part bold scientific conjecture, this landmark work enlarges themes that have sustained Dennett’s legendary career at the forefront of philosophical thought.

Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

 

Up next
Jul 8
Tu David Phu | The Memory of Taste
Top Chef alum Tu David Phu joins Google to talk about his book, “The Memory of Taste: Vietnamese American Recipes from Phú Quoc, Oakland, and the Spaces Between.” The book is a playful collection of over 85 Vietnamese and Viet American dishes, and immersive travel photography tha ... Show More
1h 10m
Jul 1
Broadway's Stranger Things
Broadway just got turned Upside Down. “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” brings the popular TV show to life on stage. Gabrielle Neveah, Alison Jaye, Burke Swanson and Juan Carlos join Google to discuss the play, which has been hailed as a “game-changing experience” that makes th ... Show More
54m 2s
Jun 27
The Skimm | Carly Zakin & Danielle Weisberg
The Skimm was founded in 2012 as a daily newsletter for women to make the news more digestible, and to help you understand how the day’s stories impact your life. Since then, it’s expanded into a digital media company, including multiple newsletters, podcasts, a mobile app, and S ... Show More
28m 15s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2023
#96 — The Nature of Consciousness
Sam Harris speaks with Thomas Metzinger about the scientific and experiential understanding of consciousness. They also talk about the role of intuition in science, the ethics of building conscious AI, the self as an hallucination, how we identify with our thoughts, attention as ... Show More
40m 37s
Apr 2021
Becoming A Philosopher | Daniel Dennett
Listen to hear about Daniel Dennett's journey to becoming a philosopher!Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesAward winning author Daniel Dennett is one of the best known living philosophers of today. Shooting to notoriety as one of th ... Show More
31m 36s
Feb 2024
Michael Devitt, "Biological Essentialism" (Oxford UP, 2023)
What makes a species a species? Aristotle answered the species question by positing unchanging essences, properties that all and only members of a species shared. Individuals belonged to a species by possessing this essence. Biologists and philosophers of biology today are either ... Show More
1h 7m
Jul 2024
Organisms
In episode 107 of Overthink, David and Ellie take up a philosophical perspective on biology’s squirmiest concept: the organism. From Kant’s distinction between organisms and mechanisms, to Deleuze and Guattari’s infamous call for ‘bodies without organs,’ they uncover and question ... Show More
48m 3s
Dec 2022
Making Sense of Consciousness | Episode 2 of The Essential Sam Harris
Filmmaker Jay Shapiro has produced a new series of audio documentaries, exploring the major topics that Sam has focused on over the course of his career. Each episode weaves together original analysis, critical perspective, and novel thought experiments with some of the most comp ... Show More
34m 59s
Apr 2024
438. Aboutness, Secular vs. Religious Ethics, & Plato’s Aviary | Dr. Daniel Dennett
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down with writer, philosopher, and cognitive scientist Dr. Daniel Dennett. They discuss the concepts of aboutness, intention, and the highest good as they relate to the religious and secular worlds, the establishment of trust and ethics outside of tran ... Show More
1h 34m
Oct 2022
Did consciousness evolve? | Donald Hoffman, Iain McGilchrist, Eva Jablonka and Michelle Montague
How did consciousness come into existence? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes'Steven Pinker and Sam Harris have argued "the emergence of consciousness is simply incomprehensible". While recent neuroscientists have concluded "there ... Show More
52m 6s
Mar 2022
Panpsychism vs physics | Philip Goff
How does panpsychism clash with fundamental physics? Does it? Can we find a theory that supports science AND philosophy to finally explain consciousness?Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesIn this episode Philip Goff responds to rece ... Show More
26m 11s
Feb 2022
The truth about consciousness | Anil Seth
How wrong was Descartes exactly? Listen to find out!Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesProfessor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Anil Seth explores the ultimate mystery of our consciousness experience. In this interview, ... Show More
16m 26s