Daniel Dennett Is Our Best Current Philosopher.

A Couple Of Hundred Years From Now, Maybe [science Fiction Writers] Isaac Asimov And Fred Pohl Will Be Considered The Important Philosophers Of The Twentieth Century, And The Professional Philosophers Will Almost All Be Forgotten, Because They're Just Shallow And Wrong, And Their Ideas Aren't Very Powerful.

Our Present Culture May Be Largely Shaped By This Strange Idea Of Isolating Children's Thought From Adult Thought. Perhaps The Way Our Culture Educates Its Children Better Explains Why Most Of Us Come Out As Dumb As They Do, Than It Explains How Some Of Us Come Out As Smart As They Do.

It Makes No Sense To Seek A Single Best Way To Represent Knowledge-because Each Particular Form Of Expression Also Brings Its Particular Limitations. For Example, Logic-based Systems Are Very Precise, But They Make It Hard To Do Reasoning With Analogies. Similarly, Statistical Systems Are Useful For Making Predictions, But Do Not Serve Well To Represent The Reasons Why Those Predictions Are Sometimes Correct.

What Would A Martian Visitor Think To See A Human Being Laugh? It Must Look Truly Horrible: The Sight Of Furious Gestures, Flailing Limbs, And Thorax Heaving In Frenzied Contortions.

Everything Is Similar If You're Willing To Look Far Out Of Focus.