It’s strange that, despite interviews with people like Robert Wright and Sam Harris, I can’t recall anyone asking the author of Consciousness Explained about meditation.1
Furthermore, somewhere in the annals of Google, I stumbled on a single line in a write up of a scientific conference where it was said that one Daniel Dennett practiced a modified form of transcendental meditation.
Unfortunately, I could find no corroborations of his account. So, I did what any amateur (wannabe) journalist would do: I emailed the guy.
Here’s what he said:
Yes, I was once courted by a TM leader, hoping I would become a philosopher-spokesman for TM. I tried it, found some value, but couldn’t abide the surrounding aura. So I continued the meditating, off and on, and found it a valuable way of settling and centering, but I’m not a habitual meditator. I often wake up in the middle of the night and think about what I’m working on, often with good results—worth keeping a notepad on my bedside table. That takes the place of meditating for me now.
DCD
Yes, I will be commenting on this middle of the night thing, as well as telling you more about Dr. Dennett in the future.
As a TM meditator myself, I also suspect I’ll have not a few things to say about the practice, as well as my history with it.
Have a Wonderful Friday, and I hope your Eostral plane is rich with signs of all variety of life.
À Bientôt.
Aar.
Books by Daniel Dennett:
Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology (MIT Press 1981) (ISBN 0-262-54037-1)
Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting (MIT Press 1984) – on free will and determinism (ISBN 0-262-04077-8)
Content and Consciousness (Routledge & Kegan Paul Books Ltd; 2nd ed. 1986) (ISBN 0-7102-0846-4)
The Intentional Stance (6th printing), Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1996, ISBN 0-262-54053-3 (First published 1987)
Consciousness Explained. Back Bay Books. ISBN 0-316-18066-1.
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (Simon & Schuster; reprint edition 1996) (ISBN 0-684-82471-X)
Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness (Basic Books 1997) (ISBN 0-465-07351-4)
Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds (Representation and Mind) (MIT Press 1998) (ISBN 0-262-04166-9) – A Collection of Essays 1984–1996
Hofstadter, Douglas R.; Dennett, Daniel C. (January 17, 2001). The Mind's I: Fantasies And Reflections On Self & Soul. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-03091-0.
Freedom Evolves (Viking Press 2003) (ISBN 0-670-03186-0)
Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness (MIT Press 2005) (ISBN 0-262-04225-8)
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (Penguin Group 2006) (ISBN 0-670-03472-X).
Neuroscience and Philosophy: Brain, Mind, and Language (Columbia University Press 2007) (ISBN 978-0-231-14044-7), co-authored with Max Bennett, Peter Hacker, and John Searle
Science and Religion: Are They Compatible? (Oxford University Press 2010) (ISBN 0-199-73842-4), co-authored with Alvin Plantinga
Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking (W. W. Norton & Company 2013) (ISBN 0-393-08206-7)
Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind (Pitchstone Publishing – 2013) (ISBN 978-1634310208) co-authored with Linda LaScola
Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind (MIT Press – 2011) (ISBN 978-0-262-01582-0), co-authored with Matthew M. Hurley and Reginald B. Adams Jr.
From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds (W. W. Norton & Company – 2017) (ISBN 978-0-393-24207-2)