Darwin's idea of natural selection makes people uncomfortable because it reverses the direction of tradition. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Words have a genealogy and it's easier to trace the evolution of a single word than the evolution of a language. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
The way evolution always discovers reasons is by retroactive endorsement. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Natural selection is not gene centrist and nor is biology all about genes; our comprehending minds are a result of our fast… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
The evidence for evolution pours in, not only from geology, paleontology, biogeography, and anatomy, but of course from molecular biology and every… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Wherever there is a design that is highly successful in a broad range of similar environments, it is apt to emerge again… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
I have shown that those who deplore Artificial Intelligence are also those who deplore the evolutionary accounts of human mentality: if human… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Has it ever occurred to you how lucky you are to be alive? More than 99 percent of all the creatures that… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
If I were to give a prize for the single best idea anybody ever had, I'd give it to Darwin for the… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
For more than a century, people have often thought that the conclusion to draw from Darwin's vision is that Homo sapiens, our… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
After Darwin, God's role changes from being the designer of all creatures great and small to being the designer of the laws… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Every living thing is, from the cosmic perspective, incredibly lucky simply to be alive. Most, 90 percent and more, of all the… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Let me lay my cards on the table. If I were to give an award for the single best idea anyone ever… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
The traditional view of purpose says it comes from on high, from God, from the Creator. Darwin's idea of natural selection makes… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Virtually every major technological advance in the history of the human species- back to the invention of stone tools and the domestication of fire… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Churches have given us great treasures such as music and architecture. Whether that pays for the harm they have done is another matter. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Whereas religions may serve a benign purpose by letting many people feel comfortable with the level of morality they themselves can attain, no religion… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
There's no polite way to say to somebody (religious followers) 'Do you realize you've wasted your life? — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Wherever there is a design that is highly successful in a broad range of similar environments, it is apt to emerge again and again,… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
The haven all memes depend on reaching is the human mind, but a human mind is itself an artifact created when memes restructure a… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Cost is always an object - the second law of thermodynamics sees to that — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
In the beginning, there were no reasons; there were only causes. Nothing had a purpose, nothing has so much as a function; there was… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
I look around the world and see so many wonderful things that I love and enjoy and benefit from, whether it's art or music… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
In all mammalian species that have so far been carefully studied, the rate at which their members engage in the killing of conspecifics is… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Cults and prophets proclaiming the imminent end of the world have been with us for several millennia, and it has been another sour sort… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
