Dennett and his Critics: Demystifying Mind

Daniel Dennett is arguably one of the most influential yet radical philosophers in America today. In this volume, Dennett is confronted by colleagues and critics, from philosophy, biology and psychology. His reply constitutes an extensive essay which clarifies, and develops further, central themes in his philosophy. The debate ranges over Dennett′s whole corpus, but special attention is given to his major work on consciousness, Consciousness Explained. The volume includes a critical assessement of Dennett′s views on behaviouralism and the subjectivity of consciousness, the nature of perception and mental representation, intentional laws and computational psychology, the rationality of thought, culture as a virus, the architecture of mind, and the role of artifacts in thinking. Also included is an introduction to Dennett′s philosophy and a full bibliography of his publications.

Notes on Contributors. Editor′s Introduction. 1. Viruses of the Mind. Richard Dawkins. 2. Filling in: Why Dennett is Wrong. P. S. Churchland and V. S. Ramachandran. 3. Pattern and Being. John Hagueland. . 4. Is Intentional Ascription Intrinsically Normative? Jerry Fodor and Ernest Lepore. 5. Logic, Mind and Mathematics. Colin McGinn. 6. On Mentalese Orthography. Ruth Garrett Millikan. . 7. What is it Like to be Boring and Myopic? Kathleen Akins. 8. Mind is Artificial. Bo Dahlbom. 9. Holism, Intrinsically, and the Ambition of Transcendence. Richard Rorty. . 10. Back from the Drawing Board. Daniel Dennett. Bibligraphy of the Publications of Daniel C. Dennett. Index.