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RE: Is philosophy a science? - With an example involving a bear (what more could you want?!)

I love quite a lot about Dennett, but there are two things I think are ridiculous: his idea that consciousness is an illusion, and his idea that free will exists (he's a compatibilist).

The idea of free will, in most people's minds, is very simple: it's the ability to have done otherwise if everything were exactly the same. This Dennett admits is impossible, but still proceeds to redefine what it means. He basically redefines until he gets his conclusion through. I don't know why some people are so enamored with certain ideas they were taught as kids.

This also harms philosophy, since it creates this idea that philosophers have been debating the same issues for thousands of years without making any progress or solving anything. This is patently false: we've solved more issues than I can count. But no, philosophers must re-invent the free will vs determinism debate as a compatibilist vs incompatibilist debate, lest they file the issue under 'solved', cos then who knows maybe the universe will collapse or something.

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Thanks a lot for giving more insight on Dennett than I could! I studied him once in a phil mind course as an undergrad but moved towards moral and political philosophy for the PhD. What you say about some philosophers re-inventing debates - yes that's something that did frustrate me and one of the reasons why I eventually chose to leave the field. Great comment!

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