Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (Penguin Science) - Softcover

Dennett, Daniel C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014016734X ISBN 13: 9780140167344

Publisher: Penguin, 1996

Synopsis

In Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life Daniel C. Dennett argues that the theory of evolution can demystify the miracles of life without devaluing our most cherished beliefs.

From the moment it first appeared, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has been controversial: misrepresented, abused, denied and fiercely debated. In this powerful defence of Darwin, Daniel C. Dennett explores every aspect of evolutionary thinking to show why it is so fundamental to our existence, and why it affirms - not threatens - our convictions about the meaning of life.

'Essential and pleasurable for any thinking person'
  Stephen Pinker

'A surpassingly brilliant book. Where creative, it lifts the reader to new intellectual heights. Where critical, it is devastating'
  Richard Dawkins

'A brilliant piece of persuasion, excitingly argued and compulsively readable'
  The Times Higher Education Supplement

'Superb ... This is the best single-author overview of all the implications of evolution by natural selection available ... deserves a place on the bookshelves of every thinking person'
  John Gribbin, Sunday Times

'Dennett's book brings together science and philosophy with wit, complex clarity and an infectious sense that these ideas matter, to us and the way we live now'
  A.S. Byatt, Sunday Times Books of the Year

Daniel C. Dennett is one of the most original and provocative thinkers in the world. A brilliant polemicist and philosopher, he is famous for challenging unexamined orthodoxies, and an outspoken supporter of the Brights movement. His books include Brainstorms, Brainchildren, Elbow Room, Breaking the Spell, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Consciousness Explained and Freedom Evolves.

About this title

Review

In Consciousness Explained, Daniel C Dennett insists on the importance of considering consciousness from the evolutionary point of view. Darwin's Dangerous Idea elaborates upon his theory of the evolution of consciousness, but also compendiously presents his views on the nature and significance of evolutionary thinking. The eponymous dangerous idea is, of course, the idea of evolution by natural selection, which Dennett esteems as "the single best idea anyone has ever had." When the theory is applied to Homo sapiens, however, the result threatens to be "the universal acid" eating through everything of value and leaving nothing in its place. One of Dennett's prime concerns is to argue that evolutionary explanations can demystify without destroying.

Darwin's Dangerous Idea is divided into three parts. In the first part, "Starting in the Middle", Dennett places the idea of evolution by natural selection in its historical context, then explains it in his characteristically vivacious style. In the second part, "Darwinian Thinking in Biology", he critically examines challenges to Darwin's idea. Connoisseurs of intellectual controversy will especially relish chapter 10 ("Bully for Brontosaurus"), in which Stephen Jay Gould is castigated for misleadingly presenting his views as radical and anti-Darwinian. Finally, in the third part, Dennett discusses the implications of Darwinian thinking for "Mind, Meaning, Mathematics, and Morality." Among the luminaries targeted here are Noam Chomsky and Roger Penrose. Throughout, Dennett manages to synthesise information from many different fields into one unified view of life and its meaning. Writing with style and wit, he again shows that he merits his reputation as one of the best popularisers of science. --Glenn Branch

Review

Carl Sagan "The Washington Post Book World" A breath of fresh air.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 014016734X
• ISBN 13: 9780140167344
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 592