Daniel Dennett

“Dennett’s Intuition Pumps is a really good book. It does have a lot of these standard critical thinking things in it. But he’s very witty, which is not very normal for philosophers. So in amongst Occam’s Razor and all that kind of stuff, he’s also got more quirky, unusual things. He has the idea of a ‘deepity,’ a phrase which he’s coined. As I understand it, a deepity is an utterance which sounds profound, but if you examine it, isn’t at all. Social media is a great promoter of deepities, these little quotes, which make you go, ‘Ah great, fantastic.’ And you’re clicking through them so quickly, that you don’t even ask what it means; it just sounds great and you share it and you go on to the next deepity.” Read more...

The best books on How To Think (Like a Philosopher)

Julian Baggini, Philosopher

“I have no hesitation at all about this book because it’s got so many absolutely classic papers in it.” Read more...

The best books on Consciousness

Susan Blackmore, Psychologist

“Dennett, in this book, is trying to dismiss the dualist intuition completely, to get rid of it entirely. When he says ‘Consciousness Explained’, in my understanding it’s explicable for Dennett because he thinks we are mistaken in thinking that there is anything beyond what is within the realm of normal physical descriptions of mechanisms and their dispositions and their properties. That’s all we need. This book has been a massive influence on me, as has Dennett himself, throughout my career…But I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced by his perspective.” Read more...

Best Books on the Neuroscience of Consciousness

Anil Seth, Scientist

“He calls it Breaking the Spell for a reason. He thinks there is this sanctity about religion which prevents people from asking, ‘Where did it come from in the first place?’ It’s a human construct, after all, it wasn’t given to humanity by God. It couldn’t have been, because we have thousands of different religions. So even religious people recognize the human contribution to religion. At the beginning of the book, he says it could be real. We could be worshipping a real divine being. But we still want to know where this system of beliefs and practices and ceremonies came from — and it’s not off limits. That’s the importance to me of that book.” Read more...

The best books on The Incompatibility of Religion and Science

Jerry Coyne, Biologist

“Elbow Room was written in 1984 so perhaps it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. However, I selected it because it’s a really good place for readers to start if they want to work their way into the contemporary debate. In terms of style, it’s very accessible and enjoyable. Dennett is a sharp philosopher with an engaging style. The main aim of this book is to debunk or defang the feeling that determinism presents an ominous sceptical threat to freedom and moral responsibility. Dennett sees the free will problem as a problem generated by philosophy. Philosophers abuse what he calls ‘intuition pumps’ and employ misleading philosophical analogies. By these means they generate groundless worries about the implications and consequences of determinism. An example would be, ‘If determinism is true, it would be like being in prison.’ Or ‘If determinism is true, we’re like a robot, mere mechanism.’ Dennett systematically tries to debunk claims of this kind and by doing this he wants to, as he puts it, vindicate a modestly optimistic self-image” Read more...

The best books on Free Will and Responsibility

Paul Russell, Philosopher

“One of Dennett’s goals was to take philosophical ideas and make sure that people in neighbouring disciplines were thinking about them. He was particularly targeting psychologists but appealed to primatologists just as much. The notion was how we understand other people, and in particular, whether we adopt the ‘intentional stance’ – that is to say, whether we approach other people by assuming that they have minds, with beliefs, intentions, emotions, and desires. One of the problems with philosophy books is that only philosophers can understand them, but Dennett wrote a book that was very readable – he didn’t compromise the academic complexity of his subject, but he wanted to ensure that it was widely accessible. This book gave rise to a lot of the research that was carried out in developmental psychology into how children understand other people, and how they develop the capacity to ‘mind-read’. It certainly inspired my work in understanding children with autism. Why is it that they are not developing the capacity to mind-read, or developing the ‘intentional stance’?” Read more...

The best books on Autism and Asperger Syndrome

Simon Baron-Cohen, Psychologist