- Controversial literature, Religion, Evolution, 08.37 philosophy of religion
For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why—and how—it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life? Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion's evolution from "wild" folk belief to "domesticated" dogma. Not an antireligious screed but an unblinking look beneath the veil of orthodoxy, Breaking the Spell will be read and debated by believers and skeptics alike.
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Contemporary, cool, spare and classical in form.
- contemporarynostalgic
- cooloverwhelming
- sparerichly built
- classical in formformally daring
- earnestironic
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About the book
- Author
- Daniel C. Dennett
- First published
- 2004
- Pages
- 448
- Publisher
- Viking, Penguin Group USA, Inc., Penguin (Non-Classics)
- Editions
- 7
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780141017778
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Daniel Clement Dennett III was an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centered on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. Dennett was the co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Dennett was a vocal atheist and secularist, a member of the Secular Coalition for America advisory board, and a member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, as well as an outspoken supporter of the Brights movement. Dennett was referred to as one of the "Four Horsemen of N
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