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While it’s reasonable to trust that science will eventually answer our unsolved questions, assuming that it has all of the answers right now is not.

Philosophers David Chalmers and Daniel Dennett argue over “philosophical zombies,” created to question the nature of human consciousness.

The human mind is like a Turing machine, says Daniel Dennett. It’s made up of unthinking cogs – but when combined in the right order, their motion gives rise to consciousness.

Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Philosopher of mind Daniel Dennett waxing wise and wicked on consciousness, dolphins, and more. 

We are what we are because of genes; we are who we are because of memes. Philosopher Daniel Dennett muses on an idea put forward by Richard Dawkins in 1976.

The state of nature isn’t a “war of all against all.” Even no-brainer bacteria “know” that sometimes the game is “Survival of the Friendliest”

‘Deep learning’ AI should be able to explain its automated decision-making—but it can’t. And even its creators are lost on where to begin.

Where are the four “horsewomen” of new atheism? Well, here are two of them, secular scholars Rebecca Goldstein and Susan Jacoby. 

Sure, the old Greek guys from 2,400 years ago get all the glory. But these living philosophers have a ton to say about life, the universe, and everything as it relates to right now. 

Evolution exists and exerts itself in a different way than gravity does… because natural selection is an “algorithmic force.” 

Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Historian Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, on the dizzying ethical questions that surround what’s coming next – from superhuman cyborgs to algorithms that know us better than we know ourselves. 

Five hundred years after the Reformation, a new book on Martin Luther reminds us how long the notion of a soul has influenced our lives. 

Our special place on the planet becomes harder to stomach the more we destroy it. 

Neuroscience suggests that we have limited free will, but there is a model of freedom that even neuroscientists support; “free won’t”.

Dreams might be a whole lot sexier than we thought – but not because of their narrative content. Neurologist Patrick McNamara’s theory links the biological changes in our brains during sleep to human’s inherent desire to procreate.

Christopher Hitchens argued that religion makes humans “extremely self-centered.”

An old fight between philosophy and science has flared up again. Fortunately we have Rebecca Newberger Goldstein to help us sort out what’s going. 

Daniel Dennett: An Introduction to Intuition Pumps Daniel Dennett, one of the best-known living philosophers and a professor at Tufts University, believes it’s time to unmask the philosopher’s art and […]

Philosopher Daniel Dennett investigates the theories related to how the brain represents ideas and beliefs while pondering an Inception-like situation in which beliefs are surgically inserted into a patient’s brain.

Daniel Dennett explains how intuition pumps (often referred to as “thought experiments”) help guide philosophers’ curiosity and thinking.

Dennett rebuts the argument that neuroscience implies we don’t have free will.

Philosopher Daniel Dennett take us through one of his “favorite bad thought experiments,” an investigation of free will based on the sci-fi film “The Boys From Brazil.”

Philosopher Daniel Dennett explains how the optimal strategy for winning a game of rock-paper-scissors isn’t necessarily the optimal strategy for leading one’s life.

A new wave of authors — think of them as Richard Dawkins’ more evolved descendants — is building the case for a “new atheism” that focuses more on what it values than on a blanket rejection of God.

Philosopher Daniel Dennett discusses reductio ad absurdum, “the workhorse of philosophical argumentation,” wherewith thinkers test the validity of an opponent’s argument by taking it to its most illogical extreme.

Feeling is a form of thinking. Both are ways of processing data, one is just faster. Daniel Kahneman’s mysterious coinages (System 1 and System 2) show how new language can help sidestep centuries of confusion. 

In most respects, neurology’s attack on free will seems to have won the day, not the least reason being that randomness is a far cry from making free and intentioned decisions.

Sam Harris: The Self is an Illusion Sam Harris describes the properties of consciousness and how mindfulness practices of all stripes can be used to transcend one’s ego. Ray Kurzweil: […]

Daniel Dennett, one of the best-known living philosophers and a professor at Tufts University, feels it’s time to unmask the philosopher’s art and make thought experimentation accessible to a wider audience. 

The video is part of our series of the most popular videos of Summer 2013.