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Re:Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) by sameoldtune on Friday April 19, 2024 @12:57PM (#40089181)
I enjoyed him mostly for his crusade against philosophy purporting that the mind has something other than a physical basis. Modern day philosophers that want to resurrect the “mind body problem” and panpsychism and the “hard problem of consciousness”.

He consistently argues that studying consciousness and perception is difficult but not impossible, and we will slowly make progress in this scientific endeavor just like all others we have attempted thus far. In philosophy circles he is sometimes derided as having too scientific a mindset, but that is what draws me to him. He’s very endearing to listen to as well—very idiosyncratic.

Re:Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) by mensetmanusman on Friday April 19, 2024 @05:13PM (#40091962)
The hard problem hasn't died so it doesn't need resurrecting. (Unless you redefine the hard problem into an easy one that is :))
Re:Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) by naasking on Friday April 19, 2024 @06:12PM (#40092492)
It is slowly dying, just like vitalism before it.
Re:Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) by mensetmanusman on Friday April 19, 2024 @09:03PM (#40093625)
That's just the demographic crisis playing out:)
Re:Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) by smnplk on Saturday April 20, 2024 @01:13PM (#40098848)
It's actually getting popular again even among quantum physicists.
Re:Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) by omerta on Saturday April 20, 2024 @02:17AM (#40095233)
So you don't think your belief that the scientific mindset is a preferable mindset is a philosophic belief rather than a scientific belief? Because it is, since that is a belief that can't be proven empirically, rather it is reasoned to philosophically.

Now to address your misguided belief on the mind being reduced to the brain.

Under atheistic materialism what is happening is matter in motion. This means even the matter in your brain. What does that mean? Your brain is determined by the laws of physics, chemistry, etc and even your comment was determined. You destroy the possibility of justified knowledge claims under that worldview when taking it to its logical conclusion. Also as Sean Caroll noted, quantum physics and stochastic probabilities don't mean anything, taking the worldview to the logical conclusion means determinism of the movement of matter.

You also can't account for universals and particulars on that view and solve the problem of the and the many.

Re:Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) by vixen99 on Saturday April 20, 2024 @07:22AM (#40096491)
Doesn't a crusade, which I think it was, imply a set of strong beliefs not a dispassionate analysis of what might be the case? David Berlinski's 'The Devil's Delusion - The atheism and its scientific pretensions' offers some serious counter arguments.