Prof. Dennett is on leave.

Also see Prof. Dennett's personal page.

Daniel C. Dennett has written books and articles about the mind and consciousness, relating the philosophy of mind to the scientific study of the brain, evolution and artificial intelligence. He majored in philosophy at Harvard, and did his graduate work at Oxford, where he was one of Gilbert Ryle's last graduate students. Although his formal education was all in philosophy -- he never even took a psychology or physiology course in college -- he does not recommend this relatively narrow education to others, since he has had to play catch-up ever since graduate school days, informing himself about the scientific areas he thinks are essential to anyone working on the mind: especially psychology, biology, and computer science.

Like all philosophers, he deals with abstract problems, but he has always balanced that professional concentration with a fascination with concrete problems -- how things work, and how things are made. He seriously considered pursuing a career as a sculptor when he was a student, and he spends his summers at his farm in Maine, where he grows apples, blueberries, hay and timber when he is not sailing. Much of his energy there goes into repairing farm machinery and buildings, designing and building equipment for his cider-making hobby and -- when there are no more utilitarian projects in the queue -- throwing pots in his pottery studio or making woodcarvings or other minor pieces of sculpture. Sailing is his favorite sport, and he has cruised and raced big boats and little boats, ocean-going catamarans and windsurfers, not only on the New England coast, but in California and Alaska, Tahiti, Mexico, Greece, and Greenland, but he has yet to sail across the Atlantic -- a dream for the future. He currently keeps his 42-foot sloop, Xanthippe, in Blue Hill, Maine, where he cruises and races, with a crew of mostly former students from Tufts.

His research has taken him to South America, Australia, Africa, Japan, Korea, and all the countries of Europe, permitting him to explore, ski, and scuba-dive all over the world. He has sung in many choruses and choirs but his busy travel schedule prevents him from getting to enough rehearsals, so he has recently had to resign from the New England Classical Singers. He mellows out by playing the piano.

Prof. Dennett is also Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies.

daniel.dennett@tufts.edu
617-627-3297
Miner 115
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