Fwd: Book Review - Dennett's Philosophy

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From: Danny Yee

To: Book Review List

Subject: Book Review - Dennett's Philosophy

Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 08:56:19 -0400

http://dannyreviews.com/h/Dennett_Philosophy.html

TITLE: Dennett's Philosophy

- A Comprehensive Assessment

EDITORS: Don Ross, Andrew Brook + David Thompson

PUBLISHER: the MIT Press 2000

- 397 pages, references, index

Those interested in Daniel Dennett won't want to miss this book, which

contains papers by fourteen philosophers on different aspects of his

work, along with a response by Dennett himself. The "comprehensive

assessment" claim is an exaggeration, but the collection spans a broad

range: it focuses on Dennett's core areas of meaning and consciousness,

but extends to his work on evolution and ethics. Most of the papers are

more technical and less accessible than Dennett's own books, however, so

the volume is not an ideal introduction to his work and may not appeal to

those who only know him through books such as _Darwin's Dangerous Idea_

and _The Mind's I_.

Dennett has always refused to build a grand system and some of the

contributors clearly find this frustrating: many of the papers are

less assessments of his work than attempts to pin him down, to place

his ideas into a broader system (or in some cases to construct such a

system for them). Others attack Dennett on different fronts. In his

sixty page response "With a Little Help From My Friends" Dennett finds

some suggestions useful, rebuts criticisms, and gracefully and urbanely

refuses to be systematized.

The papers:

* Don Ross' introduction outlines the "Denettian Stance" and glances

over the other contributions.

* Evolutionary biologist Timothy Crowe critiques Dennett's

"ultra-adaptationism", following Gould and Lewontin in stressing the

importance of historical contingency.

* Paul Dumouchel constructs an antinomy of natural reason in the

distinction between "Good Tricks" and "Forced Moves" in evolution.

* Ruth Millikan continues a long-running debate with Dennett over the

theory of meaning, arguing among other things that the design stance

is more basic than the intentional stance.

* Timothy Kenyon asks "What would have to be the case in order for

mental properties to be real?" and concludes that "psychological states

are both real and mind dependent".

* William Seager argues that we have to reject a naive "scientific picture

of the world" in favour of a "surface metaphysics", a modern empiricism

"that takes mind or 'patterns' as basic".

* Christopher Viger argues that there are two ontological positions

-- instrumentalist and small "r" realist -- mixed up in Dennett's

"intentional stance", and offers a reconciliation of them consistent

with both his agendas.

* Don Ross constructs a complete ontological system, a "comprehensive

metaphysic", for Dennett.

* Dan Lloyd argues that rejecting Cartesianism isn't enough, that we

should extend Dennett's insights and "renounce representationalism in

all its forms", espousing instead a phenomenal realism.

* David Thompson argues that Dennett could learn from a closer look

at Husserl.

* Andrew Brook looks back, after eight years, at the "multiple drafts"

model presented in _Consciousness Explained_.

* Thomas Polger takes up Dennett's "zombie challenge", presenting a

taxonomy of zombies (and zimboes) and claiming demonstration of a

coherent, non-question-begging definition thereof.

* David Rosenthal rejects first-person operationalism, arguing for the

presence of higher-order thoughts as a criteria for distinguishing

conscious mental states.

* T. Brian Mooney expands on Dennett's naturalist critiques of

deontological and utilitarian ethics.

%T Dennett's Philosophy

%S A Comprehensive Assessment

%E Ross, Don

%E Brook, Andrew

%E Thompson, David

%I The MIT Press

%C Cambridge, Massachusetts

%D 2000

%O paperback, references, index

%G ISBN 0-262-68117-X

%P x,397pp

%U http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=3363

%K philosophy

12 September 2001

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