Daniel Dennett

The four dimensions in the 16-axis model where this thinker scores highest. People in this archetype tend to lean the same way.

• TRTrust in Reason

  9 / 10
• TETrust in Experience

  9 / 10
• TDTheoretical Drive

  9 / 10
• VAVital Affirmation

  7 / 10

The six thinkers whose 16-dimensional positions sit closest to this one. Useful as next-reading suggestions.

• Rudolf CarnapCARTOGRAPHER

  Logical syntax of language; the principle of tolerance.

• DemocritusTOUCHSTONE

  Atomism + cheerful tranquility; nothing exists but atoms and void.

• Gilbert RyleTOUCHSTONE

  The Concept of Mind — category mistakes; no ghost in the machine.

• Bertrand RussellCARTOGRAPHER

  Liberalism, logic, mathematics. The world's problems come more from foolishness than wickedness.

• David LewisCARTOGRAPHER

  On the Plurality of Worlds — every possibility is a real world.

• LeucippusCARTOGRAPHER

  First atomist — reality is void plus indivisible atoms in motion.

Concepts where Daniel Dennett sits in the conversation. Each links to a primer.

• Free will
  Are your choices yours, or the inevitable output of physics + biology + upbringing?
• Consciousness
  Why is there something it's like to be you? Why isn't the lights-on, no-one-home alternative just as physically possible?
• Personal identity
  You at 5, you at 25, you at 75 — what makes them all "you"?
• Determinism
  If everything follows from prior causes, what room is left for freedom — or for blame?
• The mind-body problem
  How does the wet electrical mass between your ears produce the experience of being you?

Short exercises in the same tradition as Daniel Dennett's thought. Each takes 5–25 minutes.

• Fallacy hunt →

  Pick a real argument from the wild and find three reasoning errors in it.

• Counterexample drill →

  Try to break a moral rule with a single concrete case.

• Steelmanning the opposite →

  Write the strongest possible version of the view you most reject.