Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

kapelian's picture

Dennett seems to try to

Dennett seems to try to apply evolution to culture and individual changes as a way to make change seem as much of "crane" work as possible, because Dennett's major goal is to get rid of skyhooks.  However, in my session on Thursday, we looked at the Library metephor Dennett used.  We came to the conclusion that since the library had infinite, unchangable information, it would technically be foundational, but also that if evolution is just the path of an organism through this library, that Dennett was in fact explaining evolution with a skyhook.  It's really interesting to me that Dennett didn't realize this when he was writing, unless later on in the book he had some plan to avoid this issue all together.

Another thing we talked about in our session how if Dennett wants to get rid of skyhooks, what about religion? I couldn't think of anything Dennett had specifically said about religion, but upon flipping through the book again I found on pages 153-155, saying that "...Dawkins and I are ignoring the very widespread claim by believers in God that their faith is quiet beyond reason, not a matter to which such mundane methods of testing applies." He then compares talking about religion like playing tennis without a net, and spends the majority of the section talking about how religion is crazy.  I think this is a really bold move on Dennett's part not only because he talked trash to one of the oldest institutions in the western world, but he seems to act like some of these religious crazies that he is trying to say are wrong.

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
3 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.