Philosophical Positions & Movements, American Philosophy

Freedom Evolves

Name: Freedom Evolves
Author: Daniel C. Dennett
ISBN: 9780142003848

by Daniel C. Dennett

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Overview

Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers “yes!” Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original arguments—drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy—that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally. In Freedom Evolves, Dennett seeks to place ethics on the foundation it deserves: a realistic, naturalistic, potentially unified vision of our place in nature.

Synopsis

Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers “yes!” Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original arguments—drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy—that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally. In Freedom Evolves, Dennett seeks to place ethics on the foundation it deserves: a realistic, naturalistic, potentially unified vision of our place in nature.

The Washington Post

As always when Dennett is writing, there is much of great interest along the way. This is a man who truly loves science and enjoys reporting on it and trying to relate it to the philosophical points he is making. He is particularly good when dealing with the work of those social psychologists who are, both in theory and in practice, trying to relate our biological needs to our behaviors in groups, showing how basic norms of moral behavior might have emerged naturally rather than on stone tablets carried down from on high. Dennett is crisp and critically insightful on all sorts of flabby presuppositions, such as those about the inevitability of genetic determinism, those claiming the supposed self-interest of all actions, and assumptions about the essential value of being natural or of cherishing what Mother Nature has done for us. — Michael Ruse

About the Author, Daniel C. Dennett

Daniel C. Dennett is a professor and the director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. His books include Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Readers who have come to expect Daniel Dennett's books to be rigorous, witty, opinionated, and brilliant will not be disappointed by Freedom Evolves. Fresh on the heels of Stephen Pinker's bestselling The Blank Slate, Dennett likewise takes issue with those who argue that Darwinian theories inevitably remove moral choice from human society. In this closely argued work, Dennett takes the ideas put forward in his highly acclaimed Darwin's Dangerous Idea to their logical endpoint -- the problem of human agency. "There is no more potent source of anxiety about free will," he writes, "than the image of the physical sciences engulfing our every deed, good or bad, in the acid broth of causal explanation, nibbling away at the soul until there is nothing left to praise or blame, to honor, respect or love." But even for a proponent of naturalism, Dennett argues, this is simply not so. While Dennett stresses that as individuals we are made up of millions of "mindless robotic ingredients" that have evolved out of our own growth and experience, the development of larger human culture has been accompanied by a sensitivity to social and political dilemmas that trumps determinacy. Through a process of "negotiated thresholds," a greater understanding of who we are has continually been matched by a growing understanding of what we ought to do. "Free will is real," he argues, "but it is not a pre-existing feature of our existence, like the law of gravity. It is an evolved creation of human activity and beliefs." A provocative work that draws on computer models, evolutionary theory, economics, meme theory, and many other fields to bolster its arguments, Freedom Evolves is an essential work from one of our leading philosophers. Deirdre Mullane

The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

"Trading in a supernatural soul for a natural soul-is this a fair bargain?" Dennett, seeking to fend off "caricatures of Darwinian thinking" that plague his philosophical camp, argues in this incendiary, brilliant, even dangerous book that it is. Picking up where he left off in Darwin's Dangerous Idea (a Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist), he zeroes in on free will, a sticking point to the opposing camp. Dennett calls his perspective "naturalism," a synthesis of philosophy and the natural sciences; his critics have called it determinism, reductionism, bioprophecy, Lamarckianism. Drawing on evolutionary biology, neuroscience, economic game theory, philosophy and Richard Dawkins's meme, the author argues that there is indeed such a thing as free will, but it "is not a preexisting feature of our existence, like the law of gravity." Dennett seeks to counter scientific caricature with precision, empiricism and philosophical outcomes derived from rigorous logic. This book comprises a kind of toolbox of intellectual exercises favoring cultural evolution, the idea that culture, morality and freedom are as much a result of evolution by natural selection as our physical and genetic attributes. Yet genetic determinism, he argues, does not imply inevitability, as his critics may claim, nor does it cancel out the soul. Rather, he says, it bolsters the ideals of morality and choice, and illustrates why those ideals must be nurtured and guarded. Dennett clearly relishes pushing other scientists' buttons. Though natural selection itself is still a subject of controversy, the author, director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts, most certainly is in the vanguard of the philosophy of science. (On sale Feb. 10)

Library Journal

In different ways, these two books are concerned with understanding human consciousness and consider the theory of evolution as key to explaining it. Both are written in engaging, largely jargon-free prose that will be accessible, and of interest, to the educated reader. Damasio (Descartes' Error; The Feeling of What Happens) is the more strictly "scientific" of the two authors, using his experience and experiments as a neurologist in trying to show that there is no split between mind and body-that, as Spinoza has argued, they are really unified and codependent. In the process, he investigates the phenomena of emotion and feeling and correlates them with happenings in the brain. An interesting portion of the book details his visit to Spinoza's home in Amsterdam. Dennett (Darwin's Dangerous Idea; Consciousness Explained) is the more strictly "philosophical" of the two, using "thought experiments" and analogies to argue in detail how Darwin's theory can be extrapolated to account for consciousness. Unfortunately, both authors have somewhat missed the mark in their approach, which is primarily empirical and materialistic. Another way of looking at things can be seen in one of Shakespeare's plays, where Caesar, having been forewarned of trouble, has decided not to go to the senate that morning, and explains thus: "That I cannot come is false, and that I dare not ser the cause is in my will-I will not come." He does not attribute his decision to his hormones or to the activity of his brain (as our two authors presumably would)-his response is a dynamic one, in terms indicative of human agency. And it is this element that both books do not sufficiently recognize. This aside, both authors have a deservedly large readership, and librarians in most academic and public libraries will want both [Damasio's book was previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/02, and Dennett's was previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/02.]-Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Lib., Washington, DC

Kirkus Reviews

National Book Award–winner Dennett (Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, 1995, etc.) seeks to account for free will in a world determined by inflexible scientific laws. His answer lies in evolution. The author embraces a materialist position. The advance of science has made obsolete the notion of an immaterial soul, he notes, but if the physical universe is all, why do we believe ourselves to be free agents with independent wills? The answer, for Dennett (Center for Cognitive Studies/Tufts Univ.), lies in the gradual development from simpler to more complex life forms. A primordial cell has little to do beyond absorbing nourishment and avoiding being absorbed in turn by its larger neighbors. Yet such completely determined phenomena as the computer game Life, in which two-dimensional shapes follow rigid rules, can give rise to startling complexity, even the illusion of conscious action. Complex living creatures, such as the proverbial free bird, have more options. But moral choice remains the crux of the matter. Dennett takes as a test case Martin Luther's dictum "Here I stand; I can do no other." In what sense was Luther incapable of acting differently? Certainly not in the same way as a primitive organism with only one response to a given stimulus; if that were so, it would display neither virtue nor courage to take such a stand. The "Prisoner's Dilemma" of game theory seems to prove that betrayal is the most rational choice: how, then, has cooperation arisen in the real world? Much of the answer lies in social evolution. Language allows communities to perpetuate their beliefs and customs, enabling the like-minded to protect themselves against predatory outsiders. Dennett spends much of the textdebating his professional rivals, but he is always ready to offer real-world examples of his points and rarely ducks tough questions. Difficult but nonetheless stimulating look into the roots of freedom and responsibility. Author tour