Robert Wright interviews Daniel Dennett (5 of 8)

Very interesting debate about God, evolution, free will, consciousness and death.
Daniel Clement Dennett is a prominent American philosopher whose research centers on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. Dennett is also a noted atheist and advocate of the Brights movement.
Robert Wright is an American journalist, scholar, and prize-winning author of best-selling books about science, evolutionary psychology, history, religion, and game theory, including Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, The Moral Animal, and Three Scientists and Their Gods: Looking for Meaning in an Age of Information. He is a visiting scholar at The University of Pennsylvania and Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• God
• evolution
• free will
• consciousness
• death
• Dan
• Dennett

[jackolantern341]

Robert Wright is very stubborn about his beliefs to the point that he does not pay any attention to Dennett's statements and scenarios. Dennett's points are very clear and show the evident absurdity to epiphenomenalism, but inevitably Wright must dominate the conversation with useless chatter in order to advance his beliefs. Rather than talk to avoid defeat, Wright should pay attention and develop beyond what Dennett has shown to be a contradiction and absurd. Epiphenomenalism =ridiculous.

[markthnark]

I think Dennetts analogy of the "value of a dollar" is a very clear one. Wrights dismissal of it shows an intellectual laziness that is astounding.

Internal Wright monologue.."I have a small penis, and I know their are many men out their with much bigger ones. That makes me feel insecure. However if there was a God/Deity then his penis would be huge, which would make all those other mens pale into insignificance. Now I feel better!"

[sulljoh1]

I love that sentence, "There could be no reason for asserting it." So much bunk cleared away with a single thought so we can get our bearings.

[kiarahnama]

what idiots....an engine cannot speak.

[SciTechExplained]

@whimsicaljoss Wright is inevitably not gonna be able to avoid making a fool out of himself in this video! He's somehow right, lol.

[SciTechExplained]

@51LT0F1LT0 Dennett doesn't deny the existence of greenness and how it seems to us to experience green. He just denies the un-argumented assumption that greenness cannot be explained by physical parts that somehow join forces together in order to form entities like you and me that experience greenness.

[SciTechExplained]

@jonnylazer That's correct. All Good Things Come in Small Packages though! That seems to be also true when talking about the philosophy of mind.

[SciTechExplained]

Wrong! The boat is real , the ocean is real; the keys can fall either into the ocean or the boat.

The brain is real so consciousness must be a function of the brain in the brain or else where could it be ? Are you postulating some kind of other realm? What are you talking about?

[2eelShmeal]

5:39 Is Robert trying to imply that Dan doesn't UNDERSTAND what he's trying to suggest? I'd say Dennett rather DOES understand what you're trying to say you DICK but you're so in love with yourself that you won't ACCEPT the fact that he DISAGREES with you.

(I think I just threw up in my mouth a little)

[amaxamon]

I found Dennet completely compelling when I saw this abt 10 yrs ago; now I disagree with him. I still like his work and he really helped me to become atheist but I disagree now. Animals certainly do feel pain as we do, many of them, at least. We need to redefine our own biological functions instead of scaling down to other life forms.

[Hammerfly86]

This interview provides a good meter-stick for measuring the worth of a philosopher. Dennett complicated ideas and breaking them down into simpler ones. Wright is making them infinitely more complicated.

[totalshowman]

Robert Wright is excruciating to watch here. He just doesn't quite get it, does he?