Daniel Clement Dennet III

Daniel Clement Dennet III, also known as Dan Dennett, (born March 29, 1942) is an American philosopher, cognitive scientist, and writer regarding his main interests which include free will, philosophy of religion, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind. He is known for several concepts and theories such as the Cartesian theater, heterophenomenology, intuition pump, and cassette theory of dreams.

He describes himself as “autodidact”, a beneficiary of a number of informal tutorials regarding fields of interest. In 2001, Dennet was awarded with the Jean Nicod Prize, an annual event in Paris which honors leading philosophers of mind; in 2011, he was awarded with the Mind and Brain Prize, established by the University and Polytechnic of Turin to honor researchers in the field of cognitive science; and in 2012, he received the Erasmus Prize, a yearly award for an individual who has given a notable contribution to European culture, society, or social science.