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Single Idea 3985

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 1. Biology ]

Full Idea

Biology is not a science like physics, in which one should strive to find 'laws of nature', but a species of engineering.

Gist of Idea

Biology is a type of engineering, not a search for laws of nature

Source

Daniel C. Dennett (Daniel Dennett on himself [1994], p.239)

Book Ref

'A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind', ed/tr. Guttenplan,Samuel [Blackwell 1995], p.239

A Reaction

Yes. This is also true of chemistry, which has always struck me as minitiarised car mechanics.

The 71 ideas from Daniel C. Dennett

2526 Philosophers regularly confuse failures of imagination with insights into necessity [Dennett]
2523 That every mammal has a mother is a secure reality, but without foundations [Dennett]
2525 Maybe language is crucial to consciousness [Dennett]
2527 Unconscious intentionality is the foundation of the mind [Dennett]
2524 A language of thought doesn't explain content [Dennett]
2530 Could a robot be made conscious just by software? [Dennett]
2528 Does consciousness need the concept of consciousness? [Dennett]
2529 Maybe there can be non-conscious concepts (e.g. in bees) [Dennett]
3158 Theories of intentionality presuppose rationality, so can't explain it [Dennett]
3159 Beliefs and desires aren't real; they are prediction techniques [Dennett]
7365 Dualism wallows in mystery, and to accept it is to give up [Dennett]
7366 It is arbitrary to say which moment of brain processing is conscious [Dennett]
7367 Perhaps the brain doesn't 'fill in' gaps in consciousness if no one is looking. [Dennett]
7369 Brains are essentially anticipation machines [Dennett]
7368 Originally there were no reasons, purposes or functions; since there were no interests, there were only causes [Dennett]
7370 The brain is controlled by shifting coalitions, guided by good purposeful habits [Dennett]
7371 All functionalism is 'homuncular', of one grain size or another [Dennett]
7372 In peripheral vision we see objects without their details, so blindsight is not that special [Dennett]
7373 Blindsight subjects glean very paltry information [Dennett]
7374 Light wavelengths entering the eye are only indirectly related to object colours [Dennett]
7376 We can't assume that dispositions will remain normal when qualia have been inverted [Dennett]
7379 If an epiphenomenon has no physical effects, it has to be undetectable [Dennett]
7380 Visual experience is composed of neural activity, which we find pleasing [Dennett]
7383 The psychological self is an abstraction, not a thing in the brain [Dennett]
7381 We tell stories about ourselves, to protect, control and define who we are [Dennett]
7382 We spin narratives about ourselves, and the audience posits a centre of gravity for them [Dennett]
7385 People accept blurred boundaries in many things, but insist self is All or Nothing [Dennett]
7386 Selves are not soul-pearls, but artefacts of social processes [Dennett]
7384 Words are fixed by being attached to similarity clusters, without mention of 'essences' [Dennett]
7387 "Qualia" can be replaced by complex dispositional brain states [Dennett]
7393 We can't draw a clear line between conscious and unconscious [Dennett]
7391 We can know a lot of what it is like to be a bat, and nothing important is unknown [Dennett]
7394 Conscious events can only be explained in terms of unconscious events [Dennett]
14308 We can bring dispositions into existence, as in creating an identifier [Dennett, by Mumford]
3804 Darwin's idea was the best idea ever [Dennett]
3791 Awareness of thought is a step beyond awareness of the world [Dennett]
3794 Foreknowledge permits control [Dennett]
3795 Causal theories require the "right" sort of link (usually unspecified) [Dennett]
3796 The active self is a fiction created because we are ignorant of our motivations [Dennett]
3797 I am the sum total of what I directly control [Dennett]
3798 An overexamined life is as bad as an unexamined one [Dennett]
3800 You can be free even though force would have prevented you doing otherwise [Dennett, by PG]
3801 Rationality requires the assumption that things are either for better or worse [Dennett]
3802 Why pronounce impossible what you cannot imagine? [Dennett]
3803 Can we conceive of a being with a will freer than our own? [Dennett]
4608 Minds are hard-wired, or trial-and-error, or experimental, or full self-aware [Dennett, by Heil]
4873 What is it like to notice an uncomfortable position when you are asleep? [Dennett]
4872 Most people see an abortion differently if the foetus lacks a brain [Dennett]
4874 The predecessor and rival of the language of thought hypothesis is the picture theory of ideas [Dennett]
4875 We descend from robots, and our intentionality is composed of billions of crude intentional systems [Dennett]
4876 Maybe there is a minimum brain speed for supporting a mind [Dennett]
4878 The materials for a mind only matter because of speed, and a need for transducers and effectors [Dennett]
4877 Maybe plants are very slow (and sentient) animals, overlooked because we are faster? [Dennett]
4879 There is no more anger in adrenaline than silliness in a bottle of whiskey [Dennett]
4880 Sentience comes in grades from robotic to super-human; we only draw a line for moral reasons [Dennett]
4881 Being a person must involve having second-order beliefs and desires (about beliefs and desires) [Dennett]
4882 Concepts are things we (unlike dogs) can think about, because we have language [Dennett]
3983 Learning is evolution in the brain [Dennett]
3984 The nature of content is entirely based on its functional role [Dennett]
3987 Like the 'centre of gravity', desires and beliefs are abstract concepts with no actual existence [Dennett]
3986 The 'intentional stance' is a way of interpreting an entity by assuming it is rational and self-aware [Dennett]
3985 Biology is a type of engineering, not a search for laws of nature [Dennett]
6624 Dennett denies the existence of qualia [Dennett, by Lowe]
7654 What matters about neuro-science is the discovery of the functional role of the chemistry [Dennett]
7656 I don't deny consciousness; it just isn't what people think it is [Dennett]
7655 The work done by the 'homunculus in the theatre' must be spread amongst non-conscious agencies [Dennett]
7657 Intelligent agents are composed of nested homunculi, of decreasing intelligence, ending in machines [Dennett]
7658 Obviously there can't be a functional anaylsis of qualia if they are defined by intrinsic properties [Dennett]
23803 States have content if we can predict them well by assuming intentionality [Dennett, by Schulte]
3161 If mind is just an explanation, the explainer must have beliefs [Rey on Dennett]
3177 You couldn't drive a car without folk psychology [Dennett]