The International Center for Consciousness Studies hosted the inaugural Dennett Prize during its 2025 conference in Heraklion, Crete. The prize was awarded to British philosopher Andy Clark, Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex.
The award ceremony was held in a historic Heraklion cinema, where attendees gathered for a moving tribute to Daniel Dennett's legacy. As the 2025 laureate, Andy Clark was awarded a $10,000 prize and a statuette of The Crusader—a replica of Dennett's hand-carved soapstone original. As part of the ceremony, Clark gave Daniel Dennett Lecture.
"Dan's ways of thinking have, even back then, sort of beneficially parasitized my own brain—my own ways of thinking. And I think I can honestly say that I've got a kind of internal Dan now, that is a sort of critic, such that stuff doesn't get out unless it's been passed by the internal Dan. And I think that Dan would have appreciated that—you know, there's a sort of way of living on in ways of doing philosophy, and ways of thinking about things. So I think that somehow, that sort of speaks to Dan's core commandments," Clark commented.
During the opening ceremony, Dmitry Volkov, co-founder of the ICCS, remarked: "Dan didn't just shape our understanding of consciousness—he transformed how we frame the very questions we ask about the mind. His legacy lives not only in his writings, but in the frameworks that now guide cognitive science and philosophy. The Dennett Prize is a celebration of that enduring influence."
The Dennett Prize recognizes significant advances in the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and artificial intelligence—fields profoundly shaped by the revolutionary ideas of Daniel Dennett. The Committee of the Prize includes Susan Dennett, Keith Frankish, Giorgio Vallortigara, Nicholas Humphrey, and Dmitry Volkov. This year, the Committee received 14 applications, all carefully considered, and unanimously declared Andy Clark as the winner.
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