Blogs

"The Chinese believe that before you can conquer a beast you first must make it beautiful" (5).

--Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind

            In “Darwin’s Dangerous Ideas,” Daniel Dennett equates the theory of evolution with a universal acid that cannot be contained and “eats through virtually every traditional concept” (Dennett 1995). As a premedical student aspiring to become a future physician, I was eager to discover the erosive effects of this universal acid on the medical field.

ames Hercher

Evolution in Lit

Web Paper #2

Intellectual Flexibility Inspired by Daniel Dennett

 After I had asked whether the words “ain’t” or “snuck” were actually words, my third grade teacher told me to look them up in the dictionary. She said that if I found them, they were words. If not, then they were improper. Simple as that. Is this, however, an incorrect way at viewing words? Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, was the very first comprehensive (as comprehensive as we are aware of) compilation of words in the English language. The commencement of the dictionary helped to shape the world of literature, professional publications, and writing. The dictionary, upon its every-decade renewal, deems words as useful and true if they are included within its published and meticulously edited pages.

Coral A. Walker

March 4, 2010

BIO/ENG 223

Dalke & Grobstein

Webpaper #2

Evolving Identities: A Focus on Immigrant Stories

           In Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, Daniel C.Dennett uses the concept of an algorithm to shed light on Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection. According to Dennett, evolutionary change as a result of random variation and differential reproductive success can be understood as a “formal process that can be counted on – logically – to yield a certain result whenever it is ‘run’ or instantiated.” (Dennett, 50). The three defining elements of an algorithm fulfill the : substrate neutrality, underlying mindlessness, and guaranteed results. Viewing seemingly complex biological phenomena through such a formulaic lens can be intriguing or frightening depending on one’s frame of mind.

Jen Schmidt 

March 13, 2011

The Synchronized Evolution of the Meme of Time and Timekeeping Devices