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Lifespan
Daniel Dennett was born on March 28, 1942 and is alive currently. -
Content and Consciousness
This was Dennett's doctoral thesis turned first book. It was his initial foray into the philosophy of the mind, something in which he would continue to make significant contributions. In it he puts forth his explanation of how the mind and the body interact with each other. This is his first attempt to work out the relationship between the brain and the mind. Citation:
Dennett, D. C. Content and Consciousness. Routledge, 2016. -
Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology
In an attempt at revising his first work, he published a collection of essays on the Theory of Mind, Artificial Intelligence, Free Will, and Consciousness.
In the YouTube video below, he relates some key ideas about consciousness and free will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Nj_rEqkyQ Citation:
Dennett, D C. Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology. Hassocks, Sussex, Eng: Harvester, 1979. Print. -
Conciousness Explained
In this work, Dennett explains how consciousness is actually and amalgam of the physical and cognition processes of the brain. In this book he reviews his "multiple drafts" model of consciousness. This states that there is no central consciousness, but many events being review in different places and times inside the brain, sometimes concurrently. Citation:
Dennett, D C. Consciousness Explained. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1991. Print. -
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
This is one of his major works. In it, he makes the argument that religion needs to be studied scientifically in order to better understand it. There is a lecture where he reviews the main points of his book below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WhQ8bSvcHQ
Citation:
Dennett, Daniel Clement. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. Penguin Books, 2006.
