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What Does My Body Need ME For? The Role of Human Intelligence 
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Daniel C Dennett, Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University, comes to Bristol to discuss ‘What does my body need ME for? The role of human intelligence’. The more we learn about the powers of unconscious control systems – in robots and relatively simple animals, and in our own bodies – the more precisely we can pinpoint what ‘conscious thought’ accomplishes. It is not the ‘pinnacle’ or even the ‘centre’ of our agency, but without it, we could not be the agents that we are.
Daniel C Dennett, author of Breaking the Spell, Freedom Evolves and Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, is University Professor and Austin B Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. His first book, Content and Consciousness, appeared in 1969, followed by Brainstorms (1978), Elbow Room (1984), The Intentional Stance (1987), Consciousness Explained (1991), Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (1995), Kinds of Minds (1996), and Brainchildren: A Collection of Essays 1984-1996 (MIT Press and Penguin, 1998). Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness, was published in 2005 by MIT Press. He co-edited The Mind’s I with Douglas Hofstadter in 1981.
Professor Dennett is the author of over 300 scholarly articles on various aspects on the mind, published in journals ranging from Artificial Intelligence and Behavioral and Brain Sciences to Poetics Today and the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. He gave the John Locke Lectures at Oxford in 1983, the Gavin David Young Lectures at Adelaide, Australia, in 1985, and the Tanner Lecture at Michigan in 1986, among many others. He has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Science. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1987. He was the Co-founder (in 1985) and Co-director of the Curricular Software Studio at Tufts, and has helped to design museum exhibits on computers for the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Science in Boston, and the Computer Museum in Boston.
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February 25th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Is there any way this could be moved to a bigger venue, (as was the case with the leonard susskind lecture), it is pretty disappointing that it is fully booked nearly a full month before it is sceduled.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I agree, or if not a larger venue a repeat lecture? Would be greatly appreciated by so many!
February 26th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Thank you for your interest in our event with Daniel C Dennett on 20th March. This lecture has been advertised since January – on our website, in our E-newsletters and in our paper brochure. The University of Bristol has also promoted it widely. The event is now fully booked with an audience of 850 people. This is the maximum capacity that can be accommodated in the Great Hall of the Wills Memorial Building. Unfortunately, no alternative venue is available, so we are unable to move the event to a larger venue. If you wish to attend, please ask to be placed on the waiting list as places may become available.
Bristol Festival of Ideas
February 26th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
If there is sufficient demand, how about broadcasting the lecture into the nearby Reception Room which would hold another 200 people?
March 13th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Please can my name be added to a waiting list for a ticket. I am very keen to attend the Daniel C Dennett lecture on 20 March.
Will any tickets be released on the evening?
Thank you,
Kind regards,
Tricia
March 16th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Please could this event be streamed live on the website, or a video added to Youtube? This would benefit all the students unable to get tickets. The University has the recording equipment already but it will need to be booked.
Many thanks,
Sam
March 19th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
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