Daniel Dennett vs. Mary Midgley
Side-by-side comparison of two thinkers
Daniel Dennett
1942 – 2024
Daniel Clement Dennett III was an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. His research centered on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science.
"But if we ask where precisely in the brain that point of view is located, the simple assumptions that work so well on larger scales of space and time break down…"
Mary Midgley
1919 – 2018
Mary Beatrice Midgley was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first book, Beast and Man (1978), when she was in her late fifties, and went on to write over 15 more, including Animals and Why They Matter (1983), Wickedness (1984), The Ethical Primate (1994), Evolution as a Religion (1985), and Science as Salvation (1992).
"People did not proceed, as the theory of evolution really requires by demythologizing their symbolism about animals and the downward direction. Instead they res…"
Connections
Both wrote about: