Editing Daniel Dennett (section)

==Early life and education==
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Daniel Clement Dennett III was born on March 28, 1942, in [[Boston|Boston, Massachusetts]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6952980.Daniel_C_Dennett|title=Goodreads Authors|work=goodreads.com|access-date=January 4, 2021|archive-date=December 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209020440/https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6952980.Daniel_C_Dennett|url-status=live}}</ref> the son of Ruth Marjorie (née Leck; 1903–1971) and Daniel Clement Dennett Jr. (1910–1947).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dennett|first=Daniel C.|title=Conversion and the poll tax in early Islam|url=https://catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu/discovery/fulldisplay/alma991007748989703276/01VAN_INST:vanui|access-date=2023-02-10|website=catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu|language=en|archive-date=October 2, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002182648/https://catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu/discovery/fulldisplay/alma991007748989703276/01VAN_INST:vanui|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ijpj1tB3Qr0C&pg=PA615|title=Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers|isbn=978-1843710370|last1=Shook|first1=John R|date=2005|publisher=A&C Black}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.enotes.com/daniel-c-dennett-reference/daniel-c-dennett|title=Daniel C. Dennett Biography|work=eNotes|access-date=November 26, 2012|archive-date=June 6, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606063454/http://www.enotes.com/daniel-c-dennett-reference/daniel-c-dennett|url-status=live}}</ref> 

Dennett spent part of his childhood in [[Lebanon]],<ref name=":0" /> where, during [[World War II]], his father, who had a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in [[Islamic studies]] from [[Harvard University]], was a covert counter-intelligence agent with the [[Office of Strategic Services]] posing as a cultural attaché to the [[Diplomatic missions of the United States|American Embassy]] in [[Beirut]]. His mother, an English major at [[Carleton College]], went for a master's degree at the [[University of Minnesota]] before becoming an English teacher at the American Community School in Beirut.<ref name="Spydad">{{citation|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/nyregion/23spydad.html|title=A Dead Spy, a Daughter's Questions and the C.I.A.|periodical=The New York Times|last=Feuer|first=Alan|date=2007-10-23|access-date=September 16, 2008|archive-date=May 15, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190515183812/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/nyregion/23spydad.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1947, his father was killed in a plane crash in [[Ethiopia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://philosophynow.org/issues/68/Daniel_Dennett_Autobiography_Part_1|title=Daniel Dennett: Autobiography (Part 1) &#124; Issue 68 &#124; Philosophy Now|access-date=April 7, 2022|archive-date=June 16, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616233306/http://www.philosophynow.org/issue68/68dennett.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Shortly after, his mother took him back to Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,6000,1193371,00.html|title=The semantic engineer|first=Andrew|last=Brown|date=April 17, 2004|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=February 1, 2010|archive-date=October 11, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011033918/http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,6000,1193371,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Dennett's sister is the investigative journalist Charlotte Dennett.<ref name="Spydad"/> 

Dennett said that he was first introduced to the notion of philosophy while attending [[Camp Mowglis]] in Hebron, New Hampshire, at age 11, when a camp counselor said to him, "You know what you are, Daniel? You're a philosopher."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://kpfa.org/episode/81430/|title=Secrets of the mind|date=July 12, 2014|website=[[KPFA-FM]]|access-date=January 4, 2021|archive-date=January 17, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220117191011/https://kpfa.org/episode/81430/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Dennett graduated from [[Phillips Exeter Academy]] in 1959, and spent one year at [[Wesleyan University]] before receiving his [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] degree in philosophy at [[Harvard University]] in 1963.<ref name=":0" /> There, he was a student of [[Willard Van Orman Quine]].<ref name=":0" /> He had decided to transfer to Harvard after reading Quine's ''From a Logical Point of View'' and, thinking that Quine was wrong about some things, decided, as he said "as only a freshman could, that I had to go to Harvard and confront this man with my corrections to his errors!"<ref name="beenThinking">{{cite book|last1=Dennett|first1=Daniel C.|title=I've Been Thinking|date=3 October 2023|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|location=New York|isbn=978-0-393-86805-0}}</ref><ref name="natureObit" />