Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Evolution and the Meaning of Life
Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Evolution and the Meaning of Life
Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Evolution and the Meaning of Life
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14 PREFACE<br />
dozens <strong>of</strong> conversations: Ron Amundsen, Robert Axelrod, Jonathan Bennett,<br />
Robert Br<strong>and</strong>on, Madeline Caviness, Tim Clutton-Brock, Leda Cosmides,<br />
Helena Cronin, Arthur Danto, Mark De Voto, Marc Feldman, Murray Gell-<br />
Mann, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Steve Gould, Danny Hillis, John Holl<strong>and</strong>, Alastair<br />
Houston, David Hoy, Bredo Johnsen, Stu Kauffman, Chris Langton, Dick<br />
Lewontin, John Maynard Smith, Jim Moore, Roger Penrose, Joanne Phillips,<br />
Robert Richards, Mark <strong>and</strong> Matt (<strong>the</strong> Ridley conspecifics), Dick Schacht, Jeff<br />
Schank, Elliot Sober, John Tooby, Robert Trivers, Peter Van Inwagen, George<br />
Williams, David Sloan Wilson, Edward O. Wilson, <strong>and</strong> BUI Wimsatt.<br />
I want to thank my agent, John Brockman, for steering this big project past<br />
many shoals, <strong>and</strong> helping me see ways <strong>of</strong> making it a better book. Thanks<br />
also go to Terry Zar<strong>of</strong>f, whose expert copyediting caught many slips <strong>and</strong><br />
inconsistencies, <strong>and</strong> clarified <strong>and</strong> unified <strong>the</strong> expression <strong>of</strong> many points. And<br />
Ilavenil Subbiah, who drew <strong>the</strong> figures, except for Figures 10.3 <strong>and</strong> 10.4,<br />
which were created by Mark McConnell on a Hewlett-Packard Apollo<br />
workstation, using I-dea.<br />
Last <strong>and</strong> most important: thanks <strong>and</strong> love to my wife, Susan, for her<br />
advice, love, <strong>and</strong> support.<br />
DANIEL DENNETT<br />
September 1994<br />
PART 1<br />
STARTING IN THE<br />
MIDDLE<br />
Neurath has likened science to a boat which, if we are to rebuild it, we<br />
must rebuild plank by plank while staying afloat in it. The philosopher<br />
<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> scientist are in <strong>the</strong> same boat....<br />
Analyze <strong>the</strong>ory-building how we will, we all must start in die middle.<br />
Our conceptual firsts are middle-sized, middle-distanced objects, <strong>and</strong><br />
our introduction to diem <strong>and</strong> to everything comes midway in <strong>the</strong><br />
cultural evolution <strong>of</strong> die race. In assimilating this cultural fare we are<br />
litde more aware <strong>of</strong> a distinction between report <strong>and</strong> invention, substance<br />
<strong>and</strong> style, cues <strong>and</strong> conceptualization, than we are <strong>of</strong> a distinction<br />
between die proteins <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> carbohydrates <strong>of</strong> our material intake.<br />
Retrospectively we may distinguish <strong>the</strong> components <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ory-building,<br />
as we distinguish <strong>the</strong> proteins <strong>and</strong> carbohydrates while subsisting on<br />
diem.<br />
—WILURD VAN ORMAN QUINE I960, pp. 4-6
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