Dennett, Daniel C
Entry updated 27 July 2026. Tagged: Author, Critic, Editor.
(1942-2024) US academic, philosopher, cognitive scientist and controversialist, an effective and widely read popularizer of philosophy and evolutionary biology, who began to publish work of genre interest with "Where Am I?" in his Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology (coll 1978), a disturbing fictional dramatization of the Brain in a Box trope that explores issues of Identity and Perception. With Douglas Hofstadter he edited The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul (1981), assembling stories and essays which highlight the same philosophical questions along with others, among them AI, the possibility of Basilisks, and hubristic Godgames. Contributors include Jorge Luis Borges, Dennett himself with "Where Am I?", Hofstadter, Justin Leiber, Stanisław Lem and Raymond Smullyan. There is extensive commentary by both editors. It is a book that compels thought. [DRL]
Daniel Clement Dennett III
born Boston, Massachusetts: 28 March 1942
died Portland, Maine: 19 April 2024
works
(highly selected)
nonfiction
- Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press/Bradford Books, 1978) [nonfiction: coll: includes some fiction: pb/Edward Gorey]
works as editor
- The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul (New York: Basic Books, 1981) with Douglas Hofstadter [anth: stories and essays: hb/René Magritte]
links
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