Daniel Dennett Quotes

101 quotes in 1657 categories

• Are zombies possible? They're not just possible, they're actual. We're all zombies. Nobody is conscious — not in the systematically mysterious way that supports such…
• I am confident that those who believe in belief are wrong. That is, we no more need to preserve the myth of God in order…
• It stands to reason that we love chocolate cake because it is sweet. Guys go for girls like this because they are sexy. We adore…
• The mind is the effect, not the cause.
• It is not so much that we, using our brains, spin our yarns, as that our brains, using yarns, spin us.
• There is a time for politeness and there is a time when you are obliged to be rude,
• There is no polite way to suggest to someone that they have devoted their life to a folly.
• The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them-especially not from yourself.
• It's this expandable capacity to represent reasons that we have that gives us a soul. But what's it made of? It's made of neurons. It's…
• Sometimes you don’t just want to risk making mistakes; you actually want to make them - if only to give you something clear and detailed…
• There’s simply no polite way to tell people they’ve dedicated their lives to an illusion.
• There are no good reasons to believe in god.
• Religions have depended on the relative isolation and ignorance of their flocks, forever and this is all breaking down.
• If the concept of consciousness were to fall to science, what would happen to our sense of moral agency and free will? If conscious experience…
• The problem is that no ethical system has ever achieved consensus. Ethical systems are completely unlike mathematics or science. This is a source of concern.
• The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them - especially not from yourself. Instead of turning away in denial when you…
• I think many people are terribly afraid of being demoted by the Darwinian scheme from the role of authors and creators in their own right…
• Natural selection is not gene centrist and nor is biology all about genes; our comprehending minds are a result of our fast evolving culture.
• Some of the greatest, most revolutionary advances in science have been given their initial expression in attractively modest terms, with no fanfare.
• I don't think the 9/11 attacks taught us anything we didn't already know about religion. It has long been obvious - even to the deeply…

Browse Daniel Dennett Quotes by Category