In most sciences, there are few findings more prized than a counterintuitive result. It shows something surprising and forces us to reconsider our often tacit assumptions. In philosophy of mind, a counterintuitive result (e.g., a mind-boggling implication of somebodys theory of perception, memory, consciousness, or whatever) is typically taken as tantamount to a refutation. This affection for ones current intuitions, sometimes amounting (as we saw in the previous chapter) to a refusal even to consider alternative perspectives, installs deep conservatism in the methods of philosophers. Conservatism can be a good thing, but only if it is acknowledged. By all means, lets not abandon perfectly good and familiar intuitions without a fight, but lets recognize that the intuitions that are initially used to frame the issues may not live to settle the issues.
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About Daniel Dennett
Daniel Dennett was a 20th-century American philosopher. Daniel Clement Dennett III was an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. His research centered on the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. Read more on Wikipedia →