A Tradition Ignored: Review Essay of John Symons' On Dennett

Author: Rocknak S.

Source: Brain and Mind, Volume 2, Number 3, December 2001 , pp. 343-358(16)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

Although Symons' recent book, On Dennett (Wadsworth, 2002), provides scientists with a helpful, general introduction to Dennett's thought, it presents a skewed version of the history of the philosophy of mind. In particular, the continental tradition is almost entirely ignored, if not glibly dismissed. As a result, the unwary reader of this book would never realize that Dilthey, Sartre and Husserl, like Dennett, offer a ``middle ground'' between naturalistic realism and naturalistic eliminativism. However, unlike Dennett, the respective positions of Dilthey, Sartre and Husserl are not ontologically indifferent, but instead, present a non-naturalistic form of realism that does not simultaneously invoke Cartesian dualism.

Keywords: Dennett; Dilthey; Dualism; history of neurophilosophy; Husserl; John Symons; mental objects; mental things; naturalism; neurophilosophy; philosophy of mind; Rocknak; Sartre

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Department of Philosophy, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY 13820, USA (E-mail: steffrocknak@yahoo.com)

Publication date: 2001-12-01

• In this: publication
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• In this Subject: Anatomy & Physiology ,  Neurology & Psychiatry ,  Psychology
• By this author: Rocknak S.

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