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Daniel Dennett
philosopher

 
The Evolution of "Why?"
 
With Bjørn Vassnes

 
Saturday 24 October 18:00
Auditorium Egget, Student centre, Parkv 1, Nygårdshøyden
 

We human beings are the only living things that can represent, transmit and criticize reasons for doing things and making things. This creates a perspective for us that we can then use to interpret all the rest of the life on the planet, cautiously. Mother Nature's reasons are not just like our reasons. It is our evolved capacity to ask, and answer, Why-questions that gives us, in the end, the kinds of free will worth wanting, the kinds that no other animal has.

Daniel Dennett is Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University i Massachusetts, USA. He is the world's leading philosopher on evolution in relation to biology, humans, and religion. His most recent book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (2006) has spawned controversies in the US. He has also authored the books Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995), which shows how the idea of Darwininan evolution has an incredible strength in transforming almost everything that we believed or knew about nature, the world, life, and being human, and Freedom Evolves (2003), which discusses free will in light of evolution and effectively dismisses the misconception that evolution leads to genetic determinism.

Bjørn Vassnes is a science journalist with a background from NRK and the science show Schrödinger's cat. The last couple of years he has had a science column in the newspaper Klassekampen. His most recent book The Hunger of the Soul [In Norwegian] (2008) is a journey through recent research that sheds light on why religion is so important for humans. He has also published, among other titles, The Renewable Human: Stem Cells and the Quest for Eternal Life [In Norwegian] (2005), The Dance of Life: About Gender, War, and Love [In Norwegian] (2004), og The Myth about Rationality: and the New Science about Ourselves [In Norwegian] (1997). More about The Hunger of the Soul, e.g. the review by Morgenbladet, can be found at www.margmedia.no. Vassnes will introduce Daniel Dennett and his work and, after Dennett's talk, interview him and open for questions from the audience.

 
Free admission. The lecture is suitable also for non-biologists and will be held in English. Welcome!

 
Media Coverage

 
darwin.uib.no