For my money, the best challenge to Dennett’s position on how to understand the role of introspective accounts in psychology is Alvin Goldman’s ‘Science, Publicity and Consciousness’ and the most stimulating work being done from a position relatively consonant with Dennett’s is that being produced by Eric Schwitzgebel. If you’re interested in introspection you should check out his new book ‘Perplexities of Consciousness’ but at the very least you should have a look at some of the papers he has on his website on the subject, especially ‘Introspection, what?’ which has what I believe to be the only published ‘boxological diagram joke’. Dennett has responded to a number of criticisms in an article entitled ‘Heterophenomenology Reconsidered’ though you may need a journal subscription to access it, I don’t remember if he has made it available on his site.
As regards the qualia point, obviously (?) there have been papers and papers and papers offering definition after definition of qualia, however one taxonomy which I’ve found useful with regards to clarifying the discussion of the connection between qualia and attitudes towards consciousness is Hugh Frankish’s ‘Quining Diet Qualia’ which distinguishes ‘Classic’ ‘Diet’ and ‘Zero’ qualia (after types of Coke) with ‘Zero’ being the kind associated with Dennett (as well as the type Frankish is inclined to defend) and Diet being associated with materialists who nonetheless have a robust account of qualitative consciousness and the introspectibility of the same (such as Michael Tye, Ned Block and Peter Carruthers) - this would be the sort of ‘materialist qualia’ implicated in the notion of qualia inversion or qualitative absence (zombies), both of which Dennett claims are intuitively tempting but incoherent notions. Frankish’ taxonomy is useful for linking the issue of qualia back to introspection and clarifying in your own mind how what might seem like separate strands of Dennett’s thought tie together and contrast with other leading contemporary philosophers of mind.
For my money, the best challenge to Dennett’s position on how to understand the role of introspective accounts in psychology is Alvin Goldman’s ‘Science, Publicity and Consciousness’ and the most stimulating work being done from a position relatively consonant with Dennett’s is that being produced by Eric Schwitzgebel. If you’re interested in introspection you should check out his new book ‘Perplexities of Consciousness’ but at the very least you should have a look at some of the papers he has on his website on the subject, especially ‘Introspection, what?’ which has what I believe to be the only published ‘boxological diagram joke’. Dennett has responded to a number of criticisms in an article entitled ‘Heterophenomenology Reconsidered’ though you may need a journal subscription to access it, I don’t remember if he has made it available on his site.
As regards the qualia point, obviously (?) there have been papers and papers and papers offering definition after definition of qualia, however one taxonomy which I’ve found useful with regards to clarifying the discussion of the connection between qualia and attitudes towards consciousness is Hugh Frankish’s ‘Quining Diet Qualia’ which distinguishes ‘Classic’ ‘Diet’ and ‘Zero’ qualia (after types of Coke) with ‘Zero’ being the kind associated with Dennett (as well as the type Frankish is inclined to defend) and Diet being associated with materialists who nonetheless have a robust account of qualitative consciousness and the introspectibility of the same (such as Michael Tye, Ned Block and Peter Carruthers) - this would be the sort of ‘materialist qualia’ implicated in the notion of qualia inversion or qualitative absence (zombies), both of which Dennett claims are intuitively tempting but incoherent notions. Frankish’ taxonomy is useful for linking the issue of qualia back to introspection and clarifying in your own mind how what might seem like separate strands of Dennett’s thought tie together and contrast with other leading contemporary philosophers of mind.