Dennett Prize

The International Center for Consciousness Studies (ICCS) established the Dennett Prize, an annual award presented to an outstanding scholar whose research has made a significant contribution to advancing our understanding of the brain and consciousness. The Prize reflects the Center's commitment to excellence in philosophical and interdisciplinary research on the mind.

The Prize is named in honor of the renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett (1942–2024). Dennett's work spanned philosophy of mind, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and artificial intelligence. Throughout his career, he challenged received views and introduced transformative perspectives across disciplines. His writing set a lasting benchmark for intellectual clarity, conceptual rigor, and scientific integrity.

The Dennett Prize consists of a monetary award, and the recipient is invited to deliver a Dennett Lecture at the ICCS Annual Conference. The laureate is selected by a vote of the Dennett Prize Committee, which includes Susan Dennett, Keith Frankish, Giorgio Vallortigara, and Dmitry Volkov.

The inaugural recipient of the Dennett Prize was Andy Clark, Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex, whose work on embodied and extended cognition, artificial intelligence, robotics, and computational neuroscience has profoundly shaped contemporary philosophy of mind.

The 2026 Dennett Prize has been awarded to Nicholas Humphrey, in recognition of his influential contributions to the scientific and philosophical understanding of consciousness, perception, and the evolution of subjective experience.

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