Darwin’s idea of natural selection makes people uncomfortable because it reverses the direction of tradition.
DANIEL DENNETTDarwin’s idea of natural selection makes people uncomfortable because it reverses the direction of tradition.
DANIEL DENNETTThe best thing about saying thank goodness in place of thank God this that here really are lots of ways of repaying your debt of goodness – by setting to create more of it, for the benefit of those to come.
DANIEL DENNETTWhat you can imagine depends on what you know.
DANIEL DENNETTI think that what one can see from a Darwinian account is how the addition of culture in our species turns us into a very special sort of animal, an animal that can be a moral agent in a way that no other animal can be.
DANIEL DENNETTPhilosophers are never quite sure what they are talking about – about what the issues really are – and so often it takes them rather a long time to recognize that someone with a somewhat different approach (or destination, or starting point) is making a contribution.
DANIEL DENNETTCost is always an object – the second law of thermodynamics sees to that.
DANIEL DENNETTThe secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.
DANIEL DENNETTTo put it bluntly but fairly, anyone today who doubts that the variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of evolution is simply ignorant — inexcusably ignorant, in a world where three out of four people have learned to read and write.
DANIEL DENNETTThere are no forces on this planet more dangerous to all of us than the fanaticisms of fundamentalism.
DANIEL DENNETTIt’s a no win situation. It’s a mug’s game. The religions have contrived to make it impossible to disagree with them critically without being rude. They play the hurt feelings card at every opportunity.
DANIEL DENNETTThe problem is that no ethical system has ever achieved consensus. Ethical systems are completely unlike mathematics or science. This is a source of concern.
DANIEL DENNETTIn the long run I certainly hope information is the cure for fanaticism, but I am afraid information is more the cause than the cure.
DANIEL DENNETTWe have had plenty of atheist presidents; they just wouldn’t admit it.
DANIEL DENNETTThe haven all memes depend on reaching is the human mind, but a human mind is itself an artifact created when memes restructure a human brain in order to make it a better habitat for memes.
DANIEL DENNETTThere is a time for politeness and there is a time when you are obliged to be rude.
DANIEL DENNETTThe only meaning of life worth caring about is one that can withstand our best efforts to examine it.
DANIEL DENNETT