I wish I could follow Dennett's arguments for free will. He says we have the kind of autonomy that comes with being controllers of ourselves, but how is control possible if everything is determined? And who is arguing that free will has to be all or nothing? I want to understand how free will is compatible with determinism in the healthiest of minds, in the most ideal circumstances and to any degree at all!

An addendum to prior comment still a great interview, interviewer and interviewee.

Good interview. I like the host’s style of asking a question and letting the guest answer fully without interruption before any followup comments/questions. Much appreciated. I read the ‘Absurd’ article by Nagel and would love to read/hear the response that Dennett mentioned. Hopefully someone has a recording or notes of the response.

I would very much like to see Daniel Dennett interviewed about Michael Levin's work.

Thank you for this interesting conversation!

The people who are not going to church and moving away from orthodox religion are still feeling spiritual and being religious in a different way. The meaning of religion has been described as that to which we are bound, in other words innate in us. If it is not directed towards a transcendent god then what is the religious impulse directed towards? That is something worthy of being considered and being concerned about. This is an interview and not a dialogue so all that is not addressed and one view goes unchallenged. Dialogue with opposing views being debated is better in clarifying an issue.

Thanks for an intellectually stimulating conversation. Excellent questions and responses!

Great quote about insight into necessity...its same trough occupied by the zealots of philosoph and revelation, then. Both knowing they're right. I'm one of thise psychaotic solipsits myself...if there's only me how can i be wrong ... How can I be the only one? How can I be the only one? How can I be the only one? Can I, can I be the only one?

21:00

A synthetic a posteriori judgement is one whose Truth or falsity can be determined by experience. Man is afraid of the powers of man's mind, and can contemplate only the worthless things. There was a time when Truth went among people unadorned, as naked as Truth. Whoever saw Truth turned away in fear and shame because they could not face him. Truth wandered among the peoples of Earth, unwelcome, rebuffed, and unwanted. One day, friendless and alone, he met Parable, strolling happily along, dressed in fine and many coloured clothes. " Truth, why are you so sad, so miserable?" asked Parable, with a cheerful smile. " Because I am so old and so ugly that the people avoid me, " said Truth dourly. " Nonsense!" laughed Parable. " That is not why people avoid you. Borrow some of my clothes, go among people, and see what happens." Men cannot face naked Truth; they much prefer him disguised in the clothing of Parable. Hypatia " Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fantasy. To teach superstitions as Truth is a most terrible thing. The child's mind accepts and believes them, only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after years relieved of them. " Delusional disorder is a type of psychotic disorder. Its main symptom is the presence of one or more delusions. A delusion is an unshakable belief in something that's untrue. Kahil Gibran " Your children are not your children They are sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself They come through you but not from you And though they are with you yet they belong not to you You may give them your love but not your thoughts For they have their own thoughts You may house their bodies but not their souls. " Delusion: socialisation of the child's consciousness. External locust of control. Delusion: superstitious irrational beliefs " heaven and hell " External locust of control. Thoth " Birth is not the beginning of life - only an individual awareness. Change into another state is not death - only the ending of this awareness. " Shakespeare " All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts. " Pythagoras " No one is free who has not obtained the Empire of Himself " Plotinus " Withdraw into Yourself and look " Matthew 23 13 " For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in " Plato shared with us wisdom he learnt from Egypt, wisdom that was a death sentence in Greece, Rome ( Christianity) .. Pythagoras, Socrates and Hypatia of Alexandria. Plato ' Timaeus and Critias ' " Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, there is not an old man among you. I mean to say, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. " Plato, in his dialogue," The Republic," tells the allegory of " The Cave " Plato starts by telling us of prisoners being held in a sort of underground den, let us examine this den via the geometry of Bernhard Riemann and Felix Klein .. Klein bottle .. 3rd and 4th dimensions. Plato tells us that the prisoners are bound up unable to move their heads, let us examine this bondage via the psychology of Erich Fromm .. socialisation of consciousness .. aware-unaware. Plato tells us that the prisoners mistake shadows for substance, let us examine this mistake via the philosophy of Thales and Kant .. synthetic a priori judgement .. not thing in itself. Plato tells us that one of the prisoners is released, let us examine this release via the instructions given by T.Lobsang Rampa .. stilling the mind - seek first the Kingdom of God/Self within .. conscious astral travel - leaving the cave/body. ( Rampa emphasises the importance of confirmation) Plato tells us that the prisoners will reject this release, let us examine this rejection via the psychological effects of Stockholm syndrome .. positive feelings toward their captors or abusers .. sympathy for their captors' beliefs and behaviours. Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds. Da Vinci " The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions "

It's not about wired wrong I would say wired in a certain way

not going to church is a long standing phenomenon but not starting with Mr.Dennet et al

I have interrupted listening to this talk several times to obtain a copy of Nagel's 'Absurd', remind myself of the Libet experiment, and find at least a summary of Eccles and Popper's very expensive book. I have always been aware of the 'absurd' (anyone who went to English schools in the 1960s is perfectly familiar with the idea), and while it is hard to get one's head around that in ten-to-the-power--of --one-hundred years even all black holes will have evaporated, it is just as hard to answer the question "Where was I at the Big Bang?". The Libet experiment just seems to explain what before was puzzling. How does a conscious act arise out of a cloud of quarks, is much easier to answer than how does it come spontaneously into being. The argument that free will is in effect the observation of ultimate ignorance about what is going on in the head of a sentient creature or even one's own head is convincing. Put these all together and the mind-body problem does not exist. Apart from being frozen in two words - there are some Amazon tribes that lack words for concepts we consider essential so maybe there is one that has no word for 'mind' or 'body' or both - it could simply arise from the impression, noted by Douglas Harding, that one has no head, and in its place a kind of insubstantial fishbowl. Actually, in a quiet corner in my city there is a statue of Buddha that has no head, or rather someone has placed a flowerpot there instead. Whenever I feel the need for reassurance I go there and contemplate it.

Nice job. Thank you

Yes new Dennet talk.

I would disagree that consciousness coming through different brains has to be uniform as minds and experiences are different.

I'd love a chance to chat with Mr. Dennett. It would be such an honor.

I can also imagine a scenario where I would think quantum indeterminism is true - a scenario where I am a physicist who knows what he's talking about.

how dare you invite the PHILOSOHY SOFA POTATO DANIEL DENNETT!

Damn he got old

Are you from breaking Bad???

Why the hell are you playing a cat and mouse game.

48:00 Sacrifice gone. Slavery gone .Homophobia gone..........................What about Capitalism ?Hahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Are those cancer spots on the top of his head? Dennett? God he looks old.