Daniel Dennett's Central Tenent

I'm reading Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea.  His writing is vivid and concise and navigates some really challenging topics.   It's too early in the book for cursory summations, but some of his early argumentative efforts are spent trumpeting the superiority of evolutionary biology vs. master-planner ideologies.  It's an interesting effort, and it's partially interesting because he wields the tools of analytic philosophy and tirelessly explores the master-planner ideas when most people who concur with his thinking quietly, and politely, walk away from such discussions.   About 1/3 of the way though the book, however, I think he is performing an "and that's all there is to it" manuver that is employed fairly frequently in contempory philosophy.  And, I do mean manuver, not fallacy.  In other words, you lay out an explanation and sever the motivation for the question - it's very Wittgenstein.  Dennett seems to say, "and evolution is the explanation for the the human condition, period, go away." 

Posted on 12/1/2007 8:21:00 PM by John

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