Daniel C. Dennett

El examen del problema del libre albedrío muestra que muchas de las profundas dudas acerca de su posibilidad no son más que preocupaciones académicas que guardan poca o ninguna relación con la conciencia de nuestros actos, elecciones y posibilidades. Las normas de la interaccion social, las instancias ajenas y subjetivas de control de la conducta y, sobre todo, el hecho fundamental de que toda eleccion implica la exclusion de otra, son fenomenos que dejan un margen bastante estrecho a la libertad. Pero, ¿tiene sentido que nos desesperemos por no poder anular el pasado, por no poder prevenir ciertos acontecimientos presentes o por no poder crearnos a partir de la nada ni elegir dos alternativas a la vez? En este texto provocador y refrescante, Daniel C. Dennett desmitifica y reafirma las posibilidades de la libertad, subrayando tres condiciones basicas de toda decision: ser libre, racional y responsable. La necesaria conexion de estos tres terminos deja claro que no es tanto la libertad lo que esta en juego, sino nuestro deseo de alcanzarla dentro de sus condiciones de posibilidad.

A generous book written by a figure who has made a significant impact on philosophy Anyone interested in philosophy should read it Nigel Warburton Times Literary Supplement One of today s most readable intellectually nimble and scientifically literate philosophers Nature Who would have guessed that a philosopher s life could be so full of adventures Daniel C Dennett philosopher and cognitive scientist has spent his career considering consciousness I ve Been Thinking traces the development of Dennett s own intellect and instructs us how we too can become good thinkers Dennett s restless curiosity leads him from his childhood in Beirut to Harvard and from Parisian jazz clubs to tillosophy on his tractor in Maine Along the way he encounters and debates with a host of legendary thinkers and reveals the breakthroughs and misjudgments that shaped his paradigm shifting philosophies Thinking Dennett argues is hard and risky In fact all good philosophical thinking is inevitably accompanied by bafflement frustration and self doubt It is only in getting it wrong that we very occasionally find a way to get it right This memoir by one of the greatest philosophers of our time will speak to anyone who seeks a life of the mind with adventure and creativi

Daniel Dennett examines the different elements that make up what we call mindsWhat kinds of minds are there, and how do we know? The first question is about what exists and the second is about our knowledge. The aim of Kinds of Minds is to answer these questions, in general outline, and to show why these two questions have to be answered together. What exists is one thing. What we can know about is something else. But we know enough about minds, Dennett argues, to know that one of the things that makes them different from everything else in the universe is the way we know about them.

Combinando ideas provenientes de la filosofía, la inteligencia artificial y la neurobiología, Daniel Dennett guía al lector por un fascinante viaje de investigación, explorando posibilidades tan llamativas como las siguientes: ¿Puede cualquiera de nosotros saber lo que pasa por la mente de otra persona? ¿Que es lo que diferencia la mente humana de las mentes animales, sobre todo de aquellos capaces de manifestar conductas complejas?...

Combining ideas from philosophy, artificial intelligence, and neurobiology, Daniel Dennett leads the reader on a fascinating journey of inquiry, exploring such intriguing possibilities as: Can any of us really know what is going on in someone elses mind? What distinguishes the human mind from the minds of animals, especially those capable of complex behavior? If such animals, for instance, were magically given the power of language, would their communities evolve an intelligence as subtly discriminating as ours? Will robots, once they have been endowed with sensory systems like those that provide us with experience, ever exhibit the particular traits long thought to distinguish the human mind, including the ability to think about thinking? Dennett addresses these questions from an evolutionary perspective. Beginning with the macromolecules of DNA and RNA, the author shows how, step-by-step, animal life moved from the simple ability to respond to frequently recurring environmental conditions to much more powerful ways of beating the odds, ways of using patterns of past experience to predict the future in never-before-encountered situations. Whether talking about robots whose video-camera "eyes" give us the powerful illusion that "there is somebody in there" or asking us to consider whether spiders are just tiny robots mindlessly spinning their webs of elegant design, Dennett is a master at finding and posing questions sure to stimulate and even disturb.

In a book that is both groundbreaking and accessible, Daniel C. Dennett, whom Chet Raymo of The Boston Globe calls "one of the most provocative thinkers on the planet," focuses his unerringly logical mind on the theory of natural selection, showing how Darwins great idea transforms and illuminates our traditional view of humanitys place in the universe. Dennett vividly describes the theory itself and then extends Darwins vision with impeccable arguments to their often surprising conclusions, challenging the views of some of the most famous scientists of our day.

Required reading for anyone remotely curious about how they came to be remotely curious Observer Enthralling Spectator What is human consciousness and how is it possible These questions fascinate thinking people from poets and painters to physicists psychologists and philosophers This is Daniel C Dennett s brilliant answer extending perspectives from his earlier work in surprising directions exploring the deep interactions of evolution brains and human culture Part philosophical whodunnit part bold scientific conjecture this landmark work enlarges themes that have sustained Dennett s career at the forefront of philosophical thought In his inimitable style laced with wit and thought experiments Dennett shows how culture enables reflection by installing a profusion of thinking tools or memes in our brains and how language turbocharges this process The result a mind that can comprehend the questions it poses has emerged from a process of cultural evolution An agenda setting book for a new generation of philosophers and thinkers From Bacteria to Bach and Back is essential for anyone who hopes to understand human creativity in all its applications

Featuring the controversial bestselling author of The God Delusion with a foreword by Stephen Fry_________________"Do you believe in God?"_________________What readers are saying:***** Awe inspiring . . . I read it in almost one sitting.***** Thought provoking . . . fascinating.***** An excellent read. Short, insightful and to the point._________________Known as the four horsemen of New Atheism, these four thinkers of the twenty-first century met only once. Their electrifying examination of ideas on this remarkable occasion was intense and wide-ranging. Questions they asked of each other included: Is it ever possible to win a war of ideas?Is spirituality the preserve of the religious?Is it acceptable to criticize someones belief? Can you argue someone out of their faith? Can you reform a religion to make it acceptable?The dialogue was recorded, and is now transcribed and presented here with new introductions from the surviving three horsemen. Essential reading for anyone interested in exploring the tensions between faith and reason.

A generous book written by a figure who has made a significant impact on philosophy ... Anyone interested in philosophy should read it Nigel Warburton, Times Literary SupplementWho would have guessed that a philosophers life could be so full of adventures?Daniel C. Dennett, philosopher and cognitive scientist, spent his career considering consciousness. Ive Been Thinking traces the development of Dennetts own intellect and instructs us how we too can become good thinkers.Dennetts restless curiosity leads him from his childhood in Beirut to Harvard, and from Parisian jazz clubs to tillosophy on his tractor in Maine. Along the way, he encounters and debates with a host of legendary thinkers, and reveals the breakthroughs and misjudgments that shaped his paradigm-shifting philosophies. Thinking, Dennett argues, is hard, and risky. In fact, all good philosophical thinking is inevitably accompanied by bafflement, frustration and self-doubt. It is only in getting it wrong that we, very occasionally, find a way to get it right.This memoir by one of the greatest philosophers of our time will speak to anyone who seeks a life of the mind with adventure and creativity.

In the years since Daniel Dennetts influential Consciousness Explained was published in 1991, scientific research on consciousness has been a hotly contested battleground of rival theories"so rambunctious," Dennett observes, "that several people are writing books just about the tumult." With Sweet Dreams, Dennett returns to the subject for "revision and renewal" of his theory of consciousness, taking into account major empirical advances in the field since 1991 as well as recent theoretical challenges.In Consciousness Explained, Dennett proposed to replace the ubiquitous but bankrupt Cartesian Theater model (which posits a privileged place in the brain where "it all comes together" for the magic show of consciousness) with the Multiple Drafts Model. Drawing on psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, he asserted that human consciousness is essentially the mental software that reorganizes the functional architecture of the brain. In Sweet Dreams, he recasts the Multiple Drafts Model as the "fame in the brain" model, as a background against which to examine the philosophical issues that "continue to bedevil the field."With his usual clarity and brio, Dennett enlivens his arguments with a variety of vivid examples. He isolates the "Zombic Hunch" that distorts much of the theorizing of both philosophers and scientists, and defends heterophenomenology, his "third-person" approach to the science of consciousness, against persistent misinterpretations and objections. The old challenge of Frank Jacksons thought experiment about Mary the color scientist is given a new rebuttal in the form of "RoboMary," while his discussion of a famous card trick, "The Tuned Deck," is designed to show that David Chalmerss Hard Problem is probably just a figment of theorists misexploited imagination. In the final essay, the "intrinsic" nature of "qualia" is compared with the naively imagined "intrinsic value" of a dollar in "ConsciousnessHow Much is That in Real Money?"

An anniversary edition of a classic in cognitive science, with a new introduction by the author.When Brainstorms was published in 1978, the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science was just emerging. Daniel Dennett was a young scholar who wanted to get philosophers out of their armchairsand into conversations with psychologists, linguists, computer scientists. This collection of seventeen essays by Dennett offers a comprehensive theory of mind, encompassing traditional issues of consciousness and free will. Using careful arguments and ingenious thought experiments, the author exposes familiar preconceptions and hobbling intuitions. The essays are grouped into four sections: Intentional Explanation and Attributions of Mentality; The Nature of Theory in Psychology; Objects of Consciousness and the Nature of Experience; and Free Will and Personhood.This anniversary edition includes a new introduction by Dennett, Reflections on Brainstorms after Forty Years, in which he recalls the books original publication by Harry and Betty Stanton of Bradford Books and considers the influence and afterlife of some of the essays. For example, Mechanism and Responsibility was Dennetts first articulation of his concept of the intentional stance; Are Dreams Experiences? anticipates the major ideas in his 1991 book Consciousness Explained; and Where Am I? has been variously represented in a BBC documentary, a students Javanese shadow puppet play, and a feature-length film made in the Netherlands, Victim of the Brain.

A landmark book in the debate over free will that makes the case for compatibilism.In this landmark 1984 work on free will, Daniel Dennett makes a case for compatibilism. His aim, as he writes in the preface to this new edition, was a cleanup job, saving everything that mattered about the everyday concept of free will, while jettisoning the impediments. In Elbow Room, Dennett argues that the varieties of free will worth wantingthose that underwrite moral and artistic responsibilityare not threatened by advances in science but distinguished, explained, and justified in detail.Dennett tackles the question of free will in a highly original and witty manner, drawing on the theories and concepts of fields that range from physics and evolutionary biology to engineering, automata theory, and artificial intelligence. He shows how the classical formulations of the problem in philosophy depend on misuses of imagination, and he disentangles the philosophical problems of real interest from the family of anxieties in which they are often enmeshedimaginary agents and bogeymen, including the Peremptory Puppeteer, the Nefarious Neurosurgeon, and the Cosmic Child Whose Dolls We Are. Putting sociobiology in its rightful place, he concludes that we can have free will and science too. He explores reason, control and self-control, the meaning of can and could have done otherwise, responsibility and punishment, and why we would want free will in the first place. A fresh reading of Dennetts book shows how much it can still contribute to current discussions of free will. This edition includes as its afterword Dennetts 2012 Erasmus Prize essay.

Se trata de todas aquellas manifestaciones que forman parte del "sentido común", es decir, creencias, esperanzas, deseos, etc.