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When the citadels of knowledge for knowledge’s sake collapse, the marketers rush in to fill the void. We’re in greater need now  than ever of epistemology – a careful, systematic examination of what we know and how we know it.

While Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley busy themselves making every aspect of our lives more efficient (except, perhaps, for the process of discovering these new technologies, learning them, and integrating […]

The tools that philosophers use are also tools for everyday life. 

Dr. Frankenstein creates a creature called Spakesheare that immediately writes a play,Spamlet. Who is the play’s author? 

Daniel Dennett has posted a fantastic set of “seven tools for thinking” in an article in the Guardian that has gone so viral that if you haven’t seen it yet, […]

“Everything happens for a reason” is my very least favorite thing for someone to say.

My first book hasn’t been out for long, but I’m thinking it’s almost time to start writing the next one. I came back from my trip to the U.K. with […]

Getting risk wrong leads to dangers all by itself, and we will remain vulnerable to these mistakes until we let go of our naïve post-Enlightenment faith in reason and accept that risk perception is inescapably an affective system, not just a matter of rationally figuring out the facts. 

What evolution and computer science have taught us is that comprehension is not required for competence. Similarly, the human mind may not be so mysterious as is often thought. 

Without question, it’s the desire to “know” that drives scientific inquiry. But as scientists at the forefront of physics or biology will tell you, the more we learn, the more simplistic earlier frameworks seem and the more complex the puzzles become. 

An idea which devastated many of my previous assumptions has implications for important views many of us hold. It also indicates the underlying basis of this blog itself. Investigating what […]

Humor fosters community and builds character, two virtues that educational reformers neglect. 

–Guest post by Declan Fahy, AoE Science & Culture correspondent Richard Dawkins guest-edited the Christmas edition of British left-wing politics and culture magazine The New Statesman — and it contains […]

The other day commenter Cotdail took issue with a tossed-off aside in my post about religion and happiness. I said the hostility of militant atheists to religion borders on madness, […]

Maybe there are no atheists in foxholes, as William T. Cummings famously said. But who wants to live in a foxhole? Most of us would prefer a room with a […]

Part of being a postmodern conservative is being open to the truth of the distinctively personal LOGOS of Christianity, to the possibility that the Christian understanding of being a person is […]

A few readers have written in to ask whether tomorrow’s AMS presentation will be recorded. My answer is “I don’t know,” but I will let everyone know if and when […]

Some false beliefs, such as paranoia, are ill-suited to evolutionary success, but some, like extreme optimism in the face of insurmountable odds, are a boon, says Scientific American.

We all think we know what it means to be conscious, but it is hard to pin this down in a precise, scientific way—as USC neuroscientist Antonio Damasio explains in our video. Every weekday in September, Big Think will offer a new insight into the human brain in our new “Going Mental” blog.

Two weeks ago, as Expelled premiered in more than a 1,000 theaters across the country, I went with several friends and graduate students for an early Friday evening screening at […]

Researchers are learning about the human brain from a system that is more similar to our gray matter than you may think: ant colonies. Just as neurons navigate through your […]

Daniel Dennett on secular ecstasy.

Daniel Dennett on the future of the human brain.

Daniel Dennett Investigates Energy Innovation.

Daniel Dennett explains consciousness and free will.

Daniel Dennett Explores Secular Solace.

Daniel Dennett with the argument against humanoid robots.

Daniel Dennett Reveals His Favorite Philosopher.

When Daniel Dennett Changes His Mind.

Daniel Dennett Explores Darwinism and Outer Space.