One of the greatest science philosophers of our time died today. There is so much one could say about Mr. Daniel Dennett, yet it seems to me that anything that I could say about him would not do him justice. First of all, I did not know him personally to be able to describe his generosity and persona using my own anecdotes. Therefore, I will refrain from doing that because it would surely sound very generic, and that is what most people will, in fact, do in the following days. Secondly, even after listening and reading so much of what he wrote, and even if his works influenced me to learn how to think and to be open to changes according to the actual body of scientific truths, it is still not a personal relationship that would give me an actual personal insight about his life and gigantic wisdom concerning many things that he addressed. Instead, I can offer you two video links, where the people who knew him talked and shared their views about Mr. Dennett. One link is from Richard Dawkins, who recently spoke with him. It is obvious that Dennett was a giant who, just as Mr. Dawkins, didn’t succumb to the cancel culture and a lot of other pseudoscientific nonsense happening right now that has been thrown at us as actual science. In his last appearance with Mr. Dawkins, he addressed these and some other issues.
Another video clip was made post mortem by YouTuber and science communicator Aron Ra. He is also one of those who knew Mr. Dennett and offers a very humble and, if I may say, “Dennettian style” of saying farewell.
Scientifically Literate Junction 