all things shining is a book by hubert dreyfushubert dreyfus
hubert dreyfus was a philosopher who worked on explications of heidegger, existentialism, and phenomenology, including an exposition of sein und zeit.
He also critiqued AI and wrot... and sean kelly about meaningnessmeaningness
meaningness is a book describing the eponymous quality of having meaning as well as the study of this quality and a stance that acknowledges it.
when we talk about the meaning of X, we are emp..., relying on the classicclassic
a classic is a work of art (e.g. a book) that belongs to a canon. A classic is revealed by age, esteem, effect, and complexity.
brenzel
Criterion/Desideratum
Bene... works from the canoncanon
a canon (greek for ruler or measuring stick) is a technology that solves the problem of scoping the attention of a reading audience to a subset of edited, compiled, or anthologized work.... they want to combat nihilismnihilism
nihilism is the view that nothing matters.
nihilism as an “ideology of nothing” would mean not that we adhere to a discernible system of beliefs about nothingness, but rather that the beliefs w... by taking a close look at the great books in literature and philosophy. They point out that in the modern world, we have a lot of uncertainty, too much freedom, all kinds of neuroses (e.g. the love song of j. alfred prufrockthe love song of j. alfred prufrock
the love song of j. alfred prufrock (with unadopted subtitle prufrock among the women) is a poem by t.s. eliot written in 1911, published 1915. it was part of his first book "prufrock and o...). one solution, obtaining a monomaniacal self-confidence like captain ahab or citizen kane, isn't an effective one. nor is trying to lose ourselves in entertainment, temptations, and hedonism.
do we have any sense left of what is sacred? is it possible to become the kind of person who could act in a moment of certainty with bravery and heroism? to attain a greatness? how can we live a meaningful life?
in the middle ages, god determined everything. all things derived their truth ultimately in the unmoved mover, the uncaused causer, in the great chain of being. this kind of thinking is exemplified in the divina commediadivina commedia
la divina commedia is an epic poem written by dante in italian, chronicling his journey through inferno, purgatorio, and paradiso, each place taking up its own canticle of 3.... but the modern day doesn't have a god, which serves the orienting purpose of the standards of a good life. how did that happen?
It's clear that shakespeareshakespeare
shakespeare was a poet and a playwright of both Comedy and tragedy. He wrote hamlet and the tempest. he was inspired by ovid, seneca, plutarch, and montaigne.
had identified the breakdown of divine order, e.g. Macbeth Private or Broken Links
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or hamlethamlet
the tragedy of hamlet, prince of denmark is an english tragedy by shakespeare. one of his longest and most complex plays, it has been an enduring staple of english literature and lite.... The fact that descartesdescartes
descartes was a french philosopher and mathematician. he's not technically a part of skeptic but he has influences of its thought.
could even question whether god was tricking humans was a sign of the times. finally, nietzschenietzsche
friedrich wilhelm nietzsche (1844-1900) was a philosopher from germany. in 1869, at the age of 24, he became a professor. his first book was The Birth of Tragedy, published in 1872, about greek tra... declared god dead.
In the modern day, we have David Foster Wallace Private or Broken Links
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, whose Infinite Jest has a way of undermining and constantly questioning itself. Now it's possible Wallace's sadness was his own, but Dreyfus and Kelly think it is symptomatic of our culture, that this sadness is pervasive. He's going past the waste landthe waste land
the waste land is a poem by t.s. eliot, a possible act of mythopoesis.
references include
aeneid
metamorphoses
satyricon
inferno
purgatorio
to try to grasp at something worth living. In his unfinished work The Pale King, he's trying to wrestle with this age of distraction. The very title infinite jest comes from Hamlet's Yorick. For Wallace, the solution was not to become bored. How do we choose to control our thoughts? It's hard, but we have the choice to make our world sacred and meaningful. That kind of mystic vision that Dante has in Paradiso. And yet it doesn't seem like Wallace was able to do it….
There's a scene in the odysseyodyssey
the odyssey is a greek epic poem by homer.
Reading
Daniel Mendelsohn on the Odyssey
, parallel but unlike the scene in which Alice tells Bill in eyes wide shuteyes wide shut
eyes wide shut is a 1999 film by stanley kubrick, based on traumnovelle by arthur schnitzler.
plot
dr. bill harford and his wife alice attend a party hosted by bill's patient victor ziegler s... that she dreamed of giving up her life for the Naval officer, where Helen describes her affair with Paris at a dinner party in the company of her husband Menelaus and Odysseus. Dreyfus argues that this is an example of arete at work. In the Homeric view, one needs an appropriate relationship to the sacred. They have to know when things are beyond their control. "They experienced favorable events as meaningful for, and directed at, them." You can even see the change by the time of the Romans in the second and first centuries BC; they personify luck as Fortuna. The Stoic's relationship to Fortuna is one of indifference. Would you rather be amazed when something favorable happens, or inured to it? Think of the way Odysseus' spear is guided by Athena, allowing him to live. Dreyfus and Kelly point to the scene in Pulp Fiction in which Jules and Vincent narrowly escape near death. Jules sees it like Odysseus, and Vincent sees it like a Stoic or a modern person (blind luck). "Our claim is that gratitude is the more fitting response."
(A charismatic person is, literally, one favored by the gods with grace.)
"When things are going at their best, when we are the most excellent version of ourselves that we can be, when we are, for instance, working together with others as one, then our activity seems to be drawn out of us by an external force. These are shining moments in life, wondrous moments that require our gratitude. In those episodes of excellence, no matter the domain, Odysseus' voice should ring through our heads: 'Be silent; curb your thoughts; do not ask questions. This is the work of Olympians.'"
For Homer, the gods are attuning moods. "Human greatness, for Homer, was to let oneself be attuned to the moods a god set for a situation." And each god has their own domain.
We have neither progressed nor should we have nostalgic regret for that past. In the oresteiaoresteia
the oresteia was a trilogy, each play a tragedy. it's sort of similar to hamlet.
, the gods are now a unity that say what is sensible for each situation. "The drama … consists in the fact that the old and new accounts of justice are completely opposed." The old gods of revenge and the new gods of universal law. "The Oresteia manifested and focused for all Athenians what they were up to as Athenians. heideggerheidegger
martin heidegger (1889-1976) was a philosopher from germany who did work in phenomenology and being. his major work is sein und zeit. he began in a seminary, but then became a student of ... calls anything that performs this focusing function a work of art." A work of art is supposed to do the work of disclosing the world, in that world. "A work of art embodies the truth of its world." "To bring out a culture in its best light, we can say, is to articulate the culture." Or they can go further, and transform and reconfigure the culture.
augustine Private or Broken Links
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and aquinasaquinas
tommy d'aquino was a medieval philosopher and theologian of christian. he was influenced by aristotle.
used Greek concepts to understand Christianity, but they didn't work. Paul tries to describe how Christians should live. For the Greeks, humans were at their best being rational and doing philosophyphilosophy
philosophy happens when friends of wisdom create concepts (socrates; deleuze) discuss (rorty) how to direct their lives (seneca) and dispel misconceptions that hinder them (....
Aristotle and then Dante put together a hierarchy in the world. Everything was ranked and categorized. The sinners in the Divine Comedy are addicts to unfulfilling things. He thinks humans are supposed to be fulfilled with direct experience of God. People had to be in their order w.r.t God. Dante's freedom consists in "restraining your desires to focus on what will be fulfilling." In Purgatory, people repent their sins, so they are on the path to salvation by reforming their senses and desires. The Stoic or Virgilian view is to use reason to guard against your appetites. Free will should curb love. For Dante, free will should direct love to the appropriate thing. Dante is devoted to Beatrice, even as a physical, embodied being. But his meaning is not through commitment with her. (Kierkegaard will have to pick up the phenomenology of romantic love.) But Dante's blissful vision doesn't seem fulfilling. Dreyfus calls it a medieval kind of nihilism. So yes, autonomy leads to active nihilism. But a Christian love wipes out individuality and meaningful difference.
It was only once the Enlightenment came around that self-sufficiency became a big thing. The subject-object distinction of Descartes. kantkant
immanuel kant (1724 - 1804) was a philosopher from prussia. he was christian. he was inspired by hume. he wrote critique of pure reason, Critique of Practical Reason.
For Kant, there i... then replaced God with the subject as the orderer of the world, taking responsibility for your own actions. Kant makes us responsible for what matters most.
But moby-dickmoby-dick
moby-dick is a novel written by herman melville following ishmael, who, along with harpooner queequeg, decides to join the pequod on a whaling expedition. but the ship is led by captain aha... takes us back full circle to Homer's polytheism. Ishmael is a moody guy, he takes it seriously. (Dreyfus mentions the Axial Revolution Private or Broken Links
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from Karl Jaspers here.) But Ishmael is happy to worship in Queequeg's idol worship. He is a polytheist. There is joy around us, if we are attentive. "Ahab is a combination of Kant's theory of human beings as autonomous selves and Dante's religious hope for eternal bliss."
Dreyfus and Kelly point to sports as the place where we find sacred community most easily. But they point to poiesis to put physis in its place. The craftsman skill. The skills require not only physical ability, but seeing the world differently. A sacred dimension as well, when he understands the uniqueness of each situation.
But we must also see how to distinguish between dangerous and benign ways of being swept away. That is meta-poesis.
Technology has taken away some of our ability to do poesis. To resist the technological way of life, which requires no skill and no understanding and therefore leads us to lose sensitivity to the world, we need to care for the goods of a worthwhile domain and cultivate the skill in it. It's not the case, as the Enlightenment would have you believe, that you know what you care about. You have to discover it. Not every moment can be sacred, though. But we have to learn to see when the distinction is important. The morning coffee ritual. Why do you do it? What do you like about it? Pay attention. Try it out. See. Developing any skill takes risk.