We have learned in recent years that the techniques of misinformation and misdirection have become so refined that, even in an open society, a cleverly directed flood of misinformation can overwhelm the truth, even though the truth is out there, uncensored, quietly available to anyone who can find it.
—Daniel C. Dennett
The methods of science aren’t foolproof, but they are indefinitely perfectible. Just as important: there is a tradition of criticism that enforces improvement whenever and wherever flaws are discovered.
—Daniel C. Dennett
What you can imagine depends on what you know.
—Daniel C. Dennett
Problems in science are sometimes made easier by adding complications.
—Daniel C. Dennett
Let your self go. If you can approach the world’s complexities, both its glories and its horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that however deeply you have seen, you have only scratched the surface, you will find worlds within worlds, beauties you could not heretofore imagine, and your own mundane preoccupations will shrink to proper size, not all that important in the greater scheme of things.
—Daniel C. Dennett
Topics: Curiosity
The secret of happiness: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.
—Daniel C. Dennett
If I know better than you know what I am up to, it is only because I spend more time with myself than you do.
—Daniel C. Dennett
We need to let our children grow up to face the world armed with knowledge, with much more knowledge than we ourselves had at their age. It is scary, but the alternative is worse.
—Daniel C. Dennett
I am inclined to think that nothing could matter more than what people love. At any rate, I can think of no value that I would place higher. I would not want to live in a world without love. Would a world with peace, but without love, be a better world? Not if the peace was achieved by drugging the love (and hate) out of us, or by suppression.
—Daniel C. Dennett
Good intentions and inspiration are simply not enough.
—Daniel C. Dennett
There’s nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view I hold dear.
—Daniel C. Dennett
Topics: Arguments, Argument
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Hilary Putnam American Philosopher
Robert Anton Wilson American Polymath
Sam Harris American Neuroscientist, Atheist, Author
Steven Pinker Canadian Psychologist
Karl Marx German Philosopher, Economist
Noam Chomsky American Linguist, Philosopher, Social Critic
Jacques Derrida French Philosopher, Literary Theorist
Emanuel Swedenborg Swedish Mystic, Theologian, Scientist
Gore Vidal American Novelist
Charles Sanders Peirce American Philosopher