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Daniel Dennett
Daniel Dennett was born on March 28, 1942 to father Daniel Clement Dennett Jr. and mother Ruth Marjorie. His father studied in Islamic history as a diplomat and scholar while his mother was an editor and teacher. Here is a educational clip of Daniel Dennett being interviewed about consciousness, the topic which he become interested in:
https://youtu.be/K26fo6QRc_k -
Content and Consciousness
In 1963, Dennett graduated from Harvard University with a B.A in Philosophy. Later pursued in graduate study at the University of Oxford and became interested in the nature of consciousness. Here, he wrote his first book, Content and Consciousness (1969). The book, in brief, is about the relationship of the mind and body. -
Time at Tufts University 1985
In 1971, Dennett become a professor at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. While teaching at Tufts, he challenged the fields of artificial intelligence, neuroscience and cognitive psychology asking the big question, how the mental is related to the physical? His studies would become prevalent among philosophers as more information was gathered about the brain’s mechanisms. -
Appointed Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies
His unconventional approach about mind made him seemed as a radical. Nevertheless, with his philosophical contributions, it led to the creation of cognitive science and Dennett becoming the appointed director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts in 1985. He was later elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1987.