Re: Darwin's Dangerous Idea-No Middle Ground

On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 08:28:46 +1000, John Wilkins <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip]

> Dennett is not regarded as a biologist, although he's a wicked philosopher of
> mind and knows a fair bit about current neurophysiology, he's a philosopher of
> biology in this respect. He's widely regarded even when people think he's
> wrong, because he attacks the right issues.
>
> Incidentally, all the topics being discussed here are phislosophical ones.

Agreed. You need to keep reminding people that Dennet is a philosopher and
not a scientist. Some people mistakenly believe that he has made positive
contributions to science. (There's no doubt that he has made *negative*
contributions to science by helping to promote confusion between science and
philosophy.)

When it comes to science, Dennett is Dawkins' lapdog. I suspect that laps and
dogs are reveresed in the field of philosophy.




Larry Moran


.

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