Daniel Dennett

Lore & Background

Daniel Dennett was born on March 28, 1942, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Ruth Marjorie and Daniel Clement Dennett Jr. He spent part of his childhood in Lebanon, where his father, a Harvard PhD in Islamic studies, worked as a covert counter-intelligence agent during World War II. After his father died in a 1947 plane crash in Ethiopia, his mother brought him back to Massachusetts. Dennett first encountered philosophy at age 11 at Camp Mowglis in New Hampshire, when a camp counselor told him, 'You know what you are, Daniel? You're a philosopher.' He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1959, spent a year at Wesleyan University, then earned a BA in philosophy at Harvard University in 1963, where he studied under Willard Van Orman Quine. He received his DPhil in philosophy at the University of Oxford in 1965, studying under Gilbert Ryle at Hertford College.

Dennett taught at the University of California, Irvine from 1965 to 1971, then moved to Tufts University, where he taught for five decades. He co-edited and co-authored the 1981 collection The Mind's I with Douglas Hofstadter, wrote an afterword for the 1999 reissue of The Extended Phenotype by Richard Dawkins, and wrote an introduction to a 2002 edition of Gilbert Ryle's The Concept of Mind. He was a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and two Guggenheim Fellowships. He retired emeritus from Tufts in 2022 in a shared celebration with his longtime friend and colleague George E. Smith.

Reader's Guide

Daniel Dennett's significance lies in his sustained effort to ground philosophy of mind in empirical research, particularly evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He was a proponent of materialism, arguing that mental states, including consciousness, result entirely from physical processes in the brain—a view he defended in his 1991 book Consciousness Explained. On free will, he was a confirmed compatibilist and developed a two-stage model of decision making that incorporated indeterminism in the generation of considerations, while maintaining that intelligent selection and reasoning determine the final decision. This model, presented in his 1978 book Brainstorms, was rejected by leading libertarian philosophers such as Robert Kane, who argued that random chance in deliberation undermines moral responsibility. Dennett's interdisciplinary approach—collaborating with computer scientists, cognitive scientists, and biologists—and his role as a co-founder of The Clergy Project and a member of the editorial board for The Rutherford Journal reflect his broader influence. He was a vocal atheist and secularist, part of the 'Four Horsemen' of New Atheism, and his work continues to provoke debate in philosophy, cognitive science, and public discourse.

Did You Know?

• Dennett was first introduced to philosophy at age 11 at Camp Mowglis in New Hampshire, when a camp counselor told him he was a philosopher.
• He transferred to Harvard University after reading Willard Van Orman Quine's From a Logical Point of View, intending to confront Quine with corrections to his errors.
• Dennett co-edited and co-authored the 1981 collection The Mind's I with Douglas Hofstadter.
• He was a co-founder of The Clergy Project.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"We really have to think of reasoning the way we think of romance, it takes two to tango. There has to be a communication." — Daniel Dennett "Daniel Dennett in a panel under the title "Can Rationality Be Taught?" at TAM 2014." — Daniel Dennett "I think religion for many people is some sort of moral viagra." — Daniel Dennett "Not a single one of the cells that compose you knows who you are, or cares." — Daniel Dennett