daniel dennett (the scientist of the week, part 7 – philosopher edition)
Written on July 5, 2010
when you go to a conference on evolution, it’s hard to miss the one guy in the room who actually looks like darwin. a philosopher amongst an auditorium full of scientists, he joked that his uncanny resemblance to ol’ charles might have been the reason he was invited in the first place. dan dennett, co-director of the center for cognitive studies at tufts university, might be more accurately described as an evolutionary philosopher. his work and writings focus on the philosophy of biology and the mind. why we are the way we are, why we think the way we think, how we got that way, and why people keep insisting on believing in fairy tales to explain complex things.
(according to wikipedia, when recovering from aortic replacement surgery and after having been told that his friends were praying for him, he very nearly asked them “did you also sacrifice a goat?”)
not originally on my lineup of people to photograph for this conference, i was really pleased that dennett agreed to sit for a few minutes. aside from my longstanding beard-envy, his was one of the few presentations i was actually able to see (on darwin and memes). funny, sharp and insightful, the presentation was way too short. luckily, there is quite a lot of dan dennett on youtube.
Filed in: evolution, scientist of the week.