BOOK REVIEW

ALL THINGS SHINING: READING THE WESTERN CLASSICS TO FIND MEANING IN A SECULAR AGE ( and Sean Dorrance Kelly)

by Prof. John Matturri Queen College, City University of New York

The landscape of professional philoso- ogy, have perhaps begun to develop a com- phy in the English speaking world has been mon ground where fruitful dialogue with dominated by a tradition, derived from both members of the continental tradition may be Cartesian rationalism and the British empiri- becoming more possible. This is found, for cists, which conceptualizes the relationship example, in the growing support for theo- between human beings and the world as ries of embodied which have em- being mediated by a veil of mental and/or phasized a view of human beings as that of verbal representation. Rather than acting physical bodies that are integrally situated within the world, this tradition sees human within essentially interacting with the world. beings as reflecting upon mental images de- Others have suggested an intermediary non- rived from the world and acting on the ba- conceptual sphere of mental life that stands sis of these conscious or non-conscious re- between mere reflex reaction and full-scale flections. Less represented in Philosophy conceptual mental content. The philosopher departments outside of Europe has been an Andy Clark has even questioned whether alternate tradition, represented by continen- there is a strict division between our tal philosophers such as Maurice Merleau- and the tools we use to understand and ne- Ponty and , which has gotiate the world: there is for him no prin- adopted a position more influenced by ciple difference between the human visual Aristotle, one which places less emphasis system and the, for example, telescopes that on representation of the world than on the extend the capacities of that visual system actions of beings that are deeply integrated or the human memory systems and the note- into the world. For decades the dominant books or computers that we use to expand analytic philosophers and the less common our ability to remember. These philosophers proponents of have do not deny that mental representations play engaged in little constructive dialogue. an important aspect in our mental lives - if In recent years, however, certain ten- there were no mental representations how, dencies within the analytic tradition, stem- for example, could we think about the fu- ming perhaps from commitments to Aristo- ture or non-actualized possibilities? __ but telian naturalism, but also responsive to de- they do tend to emphasize that such repre- velopments in such fields as neuropsychol- sentations are grounded in a less intellectual

68 ABAC Journal Vol. 31 No.1 (January-April, 2011, pp.68-73) All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age and more body-oriented relationship to the Dreyfus' earlier work, there is a substantial world. shift away from Heidegger’s style in this Herbert Dreyfus was one of the most work. Rather than adopting Heidegger’s prominent predecessors of this trend. Since rather prophetic stance and ponderous vo- the late 1960s he has written about conti- cabulary, the authors adopt an informal tone nental philosophy, most particularly the work of discussion that suggests a conversation of Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, between intelligent persons rather than the restating their sometimes quite obscure man- pronouncements of exalted wise men. This ner of presentation to a language that is more makes the book accessible not only to ana- accessible to those trained in the analytic lytic philosophers unsympathetic to the tradition. Reflecting perhaps Heidegger’s rhetoric of Heidegger but also to the wider critique of technology as a manifestation of audience of non-philosophers for whom the the Cartesian split between the subject and book seems to be primarily intended. the world, but also reflecting his mastery of This matter-of-fact approach must not, the relevant scientific fields. Anticipating later however, be taken to suggest that the scope theories about embodied cognition Dreyfus of the book’s concerns is at all unambitious. did not deny the notion that non-human The authors in fact advocate nothing less machines could think, but held that truly than a return to a relationship of a sort that thinking machines would have to be robots the authors suggest was characteristic of who actively interact with the surrounding Ancient Greek polytheism. Moreover world, would have to be characterized by though their method includes a good num- what Heidegger called being-in-the-world, ber of examples taken from everyday life, a phrase that provided Dreyfus with the title its core is to be found in a wide-ranging sur- for a classic study of Heideggerian philoso- vey of classic literary and philosophical phy. works whose authors include Homer, Heidegger conceived of his philosophi- Aeschylus, Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, cal position is manifesting a deep critique of Descartes, Shakespeare, Kant, Melville, the nature of modern society, not merely a and the contemporary American novelist study in academic philosophy and in All David Foster Wallace. For all of its rather Things Shining: Reading the Western Clas- conversational tone, this is a book of con- sics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age, siderable ambition. Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly, a In essence, the book is a critique of the Harvard philosopher who had been modern emphasis on personal autonomy, a Dreyfus’ student, extends Dreyfus’ line of basic value of modern Western culture that thought to a similar consideration of the is attributed to the separation of the self from spiritual problems of the modern world and the world that particularly followed from the how they might be remediated. Although Cartesian notion of mental life as mediated Heidegger is only mentioned twice in the inner representations of the world rather than main text of the book it is very clear that his a more embodied view of mentality. This deep influence on it, and on the thought of autonomy, according to the authors, inevi- the authors, can be felt throughout it. As with tably leads to nihilism because it provides

69 John Matturri each individual with an indeterminate num- In other words, the author’s assumption that ber of choices about what to want and how literary and philosophical classics provide a to live but provides no basis for preferring truly accurate representation of the culture one chosen way over another. Much of the from which they emerged is at least ques- book consists in the analysis of the way this tionable. movement towards nihilism is represented Yet despite the questionable nature of in a series of literary classics that are as- their method of presenting their critique of sumed to provide strong expressions of the modern culture their book remains a pen- values of the cultures of the time. etrating addition to a longstanding critique To some extent this assumption of liter- of Western notions of individualism and au- ary expressiveness of cultural value systems tonomy that has precedents not only in the is well-taken: certainly Dante’s expression work of Heidegger but also in such con- of the belief world of his time resonates more temporary communitarian thinkers and pro- with late medieval culture than it would with ponents of virtue theory as Alisdair the Enlightenment culture of the eighteenth MacIntyre and Charles Taylor. In these century. Dreyfus and Kelly plausibly reject emerging traditions of thought human be- the , still quite current in the dominant ings are not primarily conceptualized as au- tendency of , that the self tonomous individuals, but rather as integrally can be reduced to a bundle of propositional acculturated into a context which provides attitudes, of beliefs and desires, for one that them with values, goals, and narratives which holds the propensities to think and act in ground their relation to themselves, to oth- certain ways are as deeply, and integrally, ers, and to the world. In the thought of these assimilated into the self as is a primary lan- philosophers standards of behavior are not guage. This, however, begs the question of reducible to rules, as in Kant’s ethics, or whether a detailed connection can be made methods of evaluation, as in utilitarianism, between a work of the highest culture, with but to deep character traits that, like Aris- a core of derived from the study of totelian virtues, have as their underlying ba- the philosophy of Aquinas, and the deep sis processes of both habituation of action. cultural of the ordinary people of the era, One of Dreyfus and Kelly’s main examples many of whom may have been illiterate. in the book is a man who risked his life to Cultures just may not be as unitary as the save someone who had fallen onto a New authors' method suggests they are. The au- York City subway track: the authors note thors suggest the people of the Middle Ages that, like the heroes portrayed in the Greek were determined to experience themselves epics of Homer, he acted not out of reflec- as given a place on earth by God, but if this tion but merely in response to a perceived is the case how can one explain the popular situation. A virtuous person, for Aristotle, is revolts that occurred in that era. Can we one who acts appropriately not because he really conclude on the basis of a book read engages in rule-based calculations but rather only by a small number of members of an one who confidently responds out of a highly intellectual elite that prior to Descartes hu- honed and deeply embedded “gut instinct”, man beings had little sense of an interior self? to use the phrase that the contemporary

70 All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age

American thinker Jesse Prinz uses to char- free choice, and, the authors suggest, alien- acterize the physically-based responsiveness ation. Although one may question this liter- of emotions. Without such a deeply based ary method, in itself seemingly influenced by responsiveness human beings are faced with Heidegger’s suggestion that serious litera- a wide range of choices but a nihilistic sense ture and art provides a special source of of “a lack of any genuine motivation to insight into the world and our relation to it, choose one over the others”. (Dreyfus & there is much in this central section of the Kelly, chapter 1) Only with a sense of where book that is worth pondering. Particularly one really is, a notion derived from interesting, for example, is Dreyfus and Heidegger’s being-in-the-world but illus- Kelly’s suggestion that the rise of monothe- trated by the basketball player (and United ism played a role in in disenchanting the States Senator and Presidential candidate) world by imposing a unity on it, distracting Bill Bradley’s description of his global us from the varied and unintegrated modes awareness of what is going on around him of attunement to the world represented by on the playing court. Persons such as the Greek polytheism. Also critical is his trac- heroic subway rescuer or the skilled athlete ing the notion of autonomy from the notion act, according to the authors, not out of an of the interiority of the self allegedly intro- autonomous consciously controlled rational duced by St. Augustine, to the attempt at self but as if something else, conceptualized epistemological self-sufficiency in by the Greeks as the gods, were acting Descartes, to the ideal of the universalist through them. They write that moral autonomy found in Kant’s contention that human beings are ethical self-legislators To say that all men need the who share a common morality on the basis gods . . . is to say, in part at least, of their shared rational nature. Particularly that we are the kinds of beings who fascinating, even if perhaps somewhat ques- are at their best when we find our- tionable, is the central literary chapter of All selves acting in ways that we can- Things Shining that concerns Herman not __ and ought not __ entirely take Melville’s Moby Dick, a novel that the au- credit for. (Dreyfus and Kelly) thors see as epitomizing the modern West- ern tradition’s desperate nihilism, its inabil- The appropriate stance towards life, ity to fulfill those within it with an adequately then, is not autonomous pride but rather a meaningful life. gratitude, a notion connected with the im- The purpose of All Things Shining, how- portant Heideggerian notion of thankfulness, ever, is not merely to diagnose the inadequa- towards what we have been given to per- cies of the modern situation but to look for ceive about what is important in the world ways that can point us beyond that alien- and, through that perception, to do. ation. In the final chapter of the book he Much of All Things Shining consists of finds one glimmer of that in the modern ob- an attempt to trace through literary examples session with sports, a place where it may the fall from this enchanted world to the be possible to “find sacred community most modern desacralized world of autonomy, easily” (Dreyfus and Kelly, chapter 7). It is,

71 John Matturri however, not only through such community of human perfection and what we confidently with fellow fans in which sports are impor- feel are reprehensible. A speech by Hitler tant but also in their celebration of the em- and Martin Luther King’s “I Got a Dream” bodied self and its relation to the surround- speech of 1963 both served to establish, ing environment: through rhetorical devices, a sense of com- munity of shared values, and a sense of what . . . great athletes seem to cata- virtuous human beings should be, among lyze our awareness of how glori- those who experienced them. Yet, as Plato ous it is to touch and perceive, would have noted, this rhetorical power, this move through space, interact with sense of being carried forward by a force matter. (Dreyfus and Kelly, chap- that is deeper than oneself, is highly dan- ter 7) gerous and can be an instrument of tyranny. The persuasive rhetoric of the tyrant cannot It is a virtue of the work of Dreyfus and be distinguished merely on the basis of rhe- Kelly that they should find in a realm that torical force from the claims of the crusader we ordinarily feel to be mere diversion a from justice. Only by rationally, and con- not only a remnant of a sacralized world but sciously, evaluating the content of the also a link to emerging intellectual trends like speeches can we distinguish between the that of embodied cognition. Such advances, two speeches. Gut instincts may be neces- it seems to be suggested, are not merely sary for survival but they also can often lead aspects of scientific and intellectual history us astray when not carefully considered by but harbingers of a new cultural way of liv- the autonomous rational emphasized ing within the world, one that can help re- by the post-Enlightenment tradition. A ma- cover ways of being that the authors find to jor problem for views that have criticized be characteristic of the ancient Greeks. As such rational autonomy has been to none- noted above, one might certainly question theless find a way of making critically im- the linkage between scientific and philo- portant ethical distinctions. This is a particu- sophical research and the way lives are ac- larly critical issue for thought based on the tually lived, particularly in a culture in which Heideggarian tradition given Heidegger’s people seem to be moving towards the dis- own association with the German Nazi re- embodied technological modes of interact- gime. ing with the world, but the intellectual au- Dreyfus and Kelly’s attempt to avoid dacity, albeit one expressed in such a mat- the dangers associated with loss autonomy ter-of-fact style, of the authors’ suggestions involves the consideration of what he calls are certainly worth considering. a meta-poiesis, a higher order skill that al- There is, however, also an acknowl- lows one to determine when it is appropri- edged danger in this approach. A ate to give in to gut-instincts and when it is longstanding problem with the appropriate to resist the tendency to do so. communitarian and virtue traditions is their In Aristotle’s virtue theory this determina- inability to distinguish what may be valuable tion of appropriateness, which he called the in the ideals of certain traditions and ideals doctrine of the mean, came only when one

72 All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age moved beyond the deeply embedded hab- one needs to place the literary stories that its of the self and engaged in rational con- provide them with their power under ratio- sideration of the rational basis for those hab- nal philosophical scrutiny if we are to use its. This, it might be argued, is one basis for them to make judgments about their appro- the Enlightenment’s suggestion that the au- priate place in our life. A major problem with tonomous rational being should detach him- the views proposed by Dreyfus and Kelly self from his gut-instincts and, even at the is that such scrutiny, once applied, may lead cost of alienation from the deeper sources to precisely the autonomous rational judg- of the self, objectively evaluate one’s com- ment that the authors see as a source of the mitments. Dreyfus and Kelly, on the other alienation of modern man. hand, while not entirely banishing rational This book, then, extends a long tradi- reflection, place it within a context of a de- tion, beginning perhaps with works like velopment of a mode of seeing that will al- Burke’s reflections on the French revolu- low us to determine what is worth caring tion and extending to modern communitarian about, what is shining, and what should be thought, that suggests that Enlightenment rejected. values leave human being alienated and un- The nature of this perception and how able to lead meaningful lives. It is certainly a it can be connected to the neuropsychologi- worthy addition to this important trend of cal mechanisms that embody cognition in the thought even if it does not provide an ad- modern scientific views that have influenced equate solution to its central problems. the authors are critical problems for the views proposed in All Things Shining. For ______all of the analogies that the authors find with the Greek gods, these mechanisms are not manifestations of the sacred but rather of Darwinian processes of natural selection. As such they are amoral and there is no com- pelling reason to assume that they provide us with an ability to distinguish between what is worthwhile and what is reprehensible; they can be engaged by the rhetoric of a tyrant as well as by the rhetoric of a saint. Our gut instincts can at times lead us to hero- ism, but, as history, modern and ancient, demonstrates they also can lead us to the most despicable acts imaginable. There is, that is, no reason to think that we have an innate ability to make the distinctions be- tween what is worthy of our care and what is not. As Plato noted about the amoral, if not often immoral, Greek gods themselves

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