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Intentional Systems
Dennett gives us three stances for which we make assumptions or predictions in everyday life. He gives us the design stance, physical stance, and the intentional stance. Each gives us predictive power over a situation depending on our level of knowledge of the system. For example we use the design stance when something acts as it was designed to, as in the garage door opening after pressing the button. It does not require deep knowledge of how the button works, just that it was designed to work -
Consciousness Explained
Dennett proposes the Multiple Drafts Model of consciousness in his book Consciousness Explained. Where he describes consciousness as a physical process. Which was an alternative to the mind-body dualism imagined by Rene Descartes. Dennett coined that as the Cartesian Theater Model, where all the sensory inputs would be shown on a theater in the mind for a person to view. -
Darwin's Dangerous Idea
In his youth, he dreamed up an universal acid, one that would eat through anything. Later he came back to this idea when he wrote about Darwin's Origin of Species. He claims that Darwin's idea of evolution is this universal acid. Ever since It had been postulated, there was no containing it. This acid, the theory of evolution, ultimately eroded away at the idea that the mind was created and above all else, it put the mind on the playing field of all other creations. -
Are We Explaining Consciousness Yet?
In his book Are We Explaining Consciousness Yet?, he improves upon his theory of the multiple drafts model, and reimages it as fame in the brain. He proposes that consciousness is a never ending cycle of sensory input and the most 'famous' stimuli will have the attention of the consciousness. That is to say that a sensory input of microseconds is not consciousness, just as being on TV once does not make you famous. Video