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

321 Pages·2011·3.41 MB·English

by  Dreyfus

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Copyright © 2011 by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dreyfus, Hubert L.
All things shining: reading the Western classics to find mean-
ing in
a secular age / Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly.
p. cm.
1. Religions. 2. Religion. 3. Meaning (Philosophy) I. Kelly, Sean
(Sean D.) II. Title.
BL80.3.D74 2011
200—dc22 2010021750
ISBN 978-1-4165-9615-8
ISBN 978-1-4391-0170-4 (ebook)
For Geneviève, whose way of being-in-the-world
is my French answer to nihilism
—HUBERT
For Dorrance, Dorothy, Bryan, and Cheryl, Ben-
jamin, Nathaniel
The shining ones who lit the way to here
and
those who light the way ahead
—SEAN
CONTENTS
A Note to the Reader
1 Our Contemporary Nihilism
2 David Foster Wallace’s Nihilism
3 Homer’s Polytheism
4 From Aeschylus to Augustine: Monotheism on
the Rise
5 From Dante to Kant: The Attractions and
Dangers of Autonomy
6 Fanaticism, Polytheism, and Melville’s “Evil
Art”
7 Conclusion: Lives Worth Living in a Secular
Age
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Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Ifhereafteranyhighlycultured,poeticalnationshalllureback
totheirbirthright,themerryMay-daygodsofold;andlivingly
enthronethemagaininthenowegotisticalsky;onthenowun-
hauntedhill;thenbesure,exaltedtoJove’shighseat,thegreat
Sperm Whale shall lord it.
—HERMAN MELVILLE, fromMoby Dick