Daniel Dennett is a busy man. Considered one of the "four horsemen of New Atheism," Dennett has contributed to numerous books and spoken all over the world on topics ranging from religion to evolution to cognition. Between public appearances, Dennett is the Austin B. Fletcher professor of philosophy and co−director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts.
His new book, "Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse−Engineer the Mind," grew out of a collaboration with Matthew Hurley (LA ‘06) who studied under Dennett as an undergraduate at Tufts. Dennett initially attempted to dissuade Hurley from writing his proposed dissertation on humor; Dennett had dabbled in the area himself and felt the topic was too complex. After persistent writing and research, Hurley was able to rope Dennett and Reginald Adams, an assistant professor of psychology at the Pennsylvania State University, into the project. The three celebrated the publishing of their book by MIT Press this month at a release party at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, where Dennett lightheartedly described one of the benefits of the book.
"It saved my bacon because I had promised a book on humor, and I hadn't fulfilled it," Dennett said. "I had a nagging feeling of an unfilled commitment."
Besides serving as a foray into the realm of humor, the book also helped Dennett delve deeper into a field he is much more familiar with: cognition.
"What I think is most interesting about the whole project is that it shows much more vividly and persuasively than I had ever thought possible the role of emotion in cognition," Dennett said. "It's helped to turn me quite around on some issues there. People in cognitive science have tended to view … emotion as a sort of add−on, and in fact that is just wrong. Emotion is not just central to cognition; it is the control system of cognition. What you think about next is determined by emotional state."
Now that his most recent book has been released, Dennett is ready for his next project: Lebanon. On Thursday, Dennett left Tufts for the remainder of the semester to teach at the American University of Beirut (AUB) as a visiting professor in its philosophy department. After growing up in the area and being connected to the school all his life, Dennett is thrilled to take up his own post, he said.
"It's been a lifelong dream of mine. My father taught at AUB; he was an Islamic historian, and my mother met him there," Dennett said. "We lived in Beirut when I was a little boy, and my sister went to school there. I've considered myself sort of an alumnus of AUB my whole life, and now I finally get to go there and teach."
Temporarily relocating to Beirut might daunt some, but Dennett, a seasoned traveler, is unfazed. The Year of Darwin, celebrated by the science community in 2009 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" and the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, caught Dennett in a whirlwind of travel, including visits to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Canada, Mexico and Uruguay. He keeps in touch with friends and colleagues from all over the world and chuckled over a New Year's card he received from Russia during his interview.
While at AUB, Dennett will teach a graduate seminar related to his book "Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life" (1995).
"I'm teaching a course on evolution, using my book … as the skeleton basis and going on with later stuff because that was published 15 years ago," Dennett said. "That book is an attempt to clarify the ideas of evolution and natural selection and to show just how widely it can and should be applied in understanding phenomenon in the world, not just obviously biological phenomenon but many others."
Dennett acknowledged that teaching a course on evolution in the Middle East might be a risky undertaking, but he is not concerned about his reception. He gave a guest lecture at AUB in April 2009 and describes the student body as open, lively and sophisticated.
When he is not teaching or traveling, Dennett plans to continue working on his next book. Since Dennett is well−versed in the material he will be teaching, he expects to have ample time to further his writing on how humans can improve the way they think, he said.
"I'm working on a book on thinking tools. ‘A toolkit for thinking': that's the subtitle. I haven't decided on a title," Dennett said. "It's looking at arguments, thought experiments, use of examples, terms. I think that being a bit more self−conscious about the tools we use to think will help people see what a misuse of a tool is and what a proper use is."
Dennett stressed that the new book will not simply outline effective thinking tools, but will give readers insight into developing their own methods. In effect, he said, the book aims to help people think about thinking.
"A good cookbook doesn't just give you recipes — it shows you how to make up your own recipes. It gives you the principles," Dennett said. "And I suppose I like to think of my book on thinking tools as providing you with the know−how to construct and dismantle your own thinking tools, to repair them, test them."
