logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2023
1h 28m

Dan Dennett Looks Back on His Career

MICHAEL SHERMER
About this episode

Get tickets for our event: skeptic.com/event

Daniel Dennett, preeminent philosopher and cognitive scientist, has spent his career considering the thorniest, most fundamental mysteries of the mind. Do we have free will? What is consciousness and how did it come about? What distinguishes human minds from the minds of animals? Dennett's answers have profoundly shaped our age of philosophical thought. In this episode, he reflects on his amazing career and lifelong scientific fascinations, as well as the value of life beyond the university, one enriched by sculpture, music, farming, and family. 

Daniel C. Dennett is Professor Emeritus at Tufts University and the author of numerous books, including Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, Breaking the Spell, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and Consciousness Explained.

Up next
Oct 17
Why Consciousness Needs a Body
Why does being alive feel like something? Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio argues that the answer begins with the body's need to stay alive. Hunger, thirst, pain, and pleasure tell us how we're doing and push us to act. These basic feelings, he says, are the foundation of conscious ... Show More
1h 19m
Oct 10
Racism and White Guilt: Has America Changed More Than We Admit? | Shelby Steele & Eli Steele
Can fighting racism end up reinforcing it? Shelby Steele grew up under segregation and became a Black militant in the 1960s. Today, he argues that White guilt has created a different racial problem: treating Black Americans as permanent victims who cannot succeed without White he ... Show More
41m 37s
Sep 28
Would You Want to Know If You Were Wrong?
What do you make of an experience you can't explain? A strange light in the sky, a book flying off a desk, a coincidence that feels too improbable to be chance? Social psychologist Barry Markovsky joins Michael Shermer to discuss his new book Everyday Extraordinary and the experi ... Show More
1h 38m
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2024
Adventures in Philosophy with Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins
Two formidable minds explore the worlds of philosophy, science and the places where those two disciplines meet for this episode. Daniel Dennett is the American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist who is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University and has written ... Show More
58m 33s
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 40m
Feb 2024
From Genes To Memes: Philosopher Dan Dennett on the Evolution of Language & AI
In this interview with philosopher Dan Dennett, we discussed his brilliant book I've Been Thinking and the evolution of not just humankind, but of language and culture. We explored questions like: What is the future of human consciousness? And what role do AI technology and deep ... Show More
42m 54s
Apr 2021
Ep137 - Daniel Dennett | From Bacteria to Bach and Back
<p>How did we come to have minds?</p> <p>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 e ... Show More
1h 18m
Feb 2023
Daniel Dennett: It's Evolution Baby
In this episode, we take a bit of a detour from current trends and examine a talk by the philosopher Daniel Dennett on evolution. Dennett rose to public prominence as one of the so-called four horsemen of the New Athiest movement but he always seemed slightly out of place with th ... Show More
2h 34m
Apr 2024
In Memoriam: Dan Dennett on Mortality, Life, and Existence
I filmed a conversation about death shortly after Dan Dennett recovered from a life-threatening condition. In addition to discussing personal mortality, we talked about bereavement. I thought this time it would be appropriate to listen again to his wisdom—the wisdom of a great th ... Show More
14m 48s
Dec 2023
Best of Series: Inside Consciousness with Antonio DiMasio
Today we welcome Dr. Antonio Damasio. He is an internationally recognized neuroscientist whose extensive research has shaped the understanding of neural systems and consciousness. With over a hundred journal articles and book chapters, he has earned many prestigious awards throug ... Show More
1h 1m
Jun 2024
The Death of Daniel Dennett
Dr. Craig reflects on the legacy and views of atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett. 
26m 32s
May 2021
Daniel Kahneman
Daniel Kahneman is a psychologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Daniel joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the complexity of human nature, studying judgment and decision-making, and his experiments involving loss ave ... Show More
1h 42m