Dennet falls under my "deflationary view" in the section on the pessimists of our time. His basic assumption is that consciousness is somehow an illusion - in other words that it really doesn't exist. The problem with his position is that it makes no sense to suppose an appearance-reality distinction in the case of consciousness, as we can all be certain that it exists. To me he is a clear case of someone who has settled for solving easier problems and given up on the hard, essential problem. If you look back to his earlier writings he was inventive and fascinated by the paradoxes surrounding consciousness, but now he seems more concerned with "dispelling illusions" than actually figuring out what the truth is.
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