Herbert Dreyfus

"Notes" to Dreyfus philosophy 6 course.

With the existentialist point of view we cannot hold on to notions of a human essence. We live in ages where our culture, born from myths of a certain time, guid what it means to be human. Through the investigation of great works of art from past cultures (ways of being, or being-in-the-world) we can gleam different ways of being a human being from that world. Dreyfus works his way through significant works of western art to illustrate the different ways of being human, and how the west's way of being has tried to grapple with contradictory moral systems represented, say, with the proud greek hero opposed to the Christian self-abasing saint.

Another common theme runs trough this and other Dreyfus courses, that of a kind of anti-cognitiveism. This is the idea that the mind, rationally choosing and acting is important, but not a central aspect of our lives (nor a phenomenologically accurate portrayal either). Throughout this course Dreyfus traces ways of being that did not involve such heavy emphasis on the rational aspect of our lives, and how more balanced whys of being have existed in the past and therefore should be held as examples.

In Heidegger, moods played an important role as do they for Dreyfus. Moods dictate the party, not individuals. If we are to escape will-based or internalistic view points regarding consciousness in a realistic way, we considering moods, which at first seem important only to an individual, but upon investigation reveal a way of describing something that moves us apart from atomistic self-conscious acts. We are at the mercy of our moods, they color what is meaningful to us. And in that analysis we have a central Drey-degger theme. In looking at the greek culture, Dreyfus contends that the greek gods did not represent actual gods to the greeks but represented various moods. The gods represent to us internal dialogs we would have with ourselves, yet to the greeks an internal dialog with oneself is foreign in their culture or way of being-in-the-world. The Furies in the Oresteia represent vengeance, so it is to be interpreted by our reading that vengeance is in the air whenever they appear. The main point of the course is that who or what to blame in human matters has changed throughout written history. Helen of Troy is praised, not ridiculed by her running off with Paris, thus starting the Trojan war. In Homeric times, Helen in doing this followed the call of Aphrodite (the mood or god of love), a sign of a person favored by the gods, or in Dreyfus's language, a person attuned to the prevailing mood, and thus doing what was called for for the particular situation, not as a result of labored analysis and deliberation.


Heidegger's Types of art working:

Originating
Articulating


The Odyssey
-Originating work of art
-Nothing new but focusing certain aspects of the culture
 
The Oresteia, Aeschylus
-Articulating work of art 
-the Greeks have separated reason from emotion, Apollo from the Furies, leaving little room for gods as attuners
-An ontological tragedy as opposed to a phycological
-The culture of reason and emotion united in patriotism for Athens by Athena

Gospel of John

The trinity:
1) God the Father compared to Heideggerian background practices
2) The Son (Jesus) is to the exemplar the supreme example - the reconfigurer of a new age of human meaning - uses new language, so not directly understandable e.g. Jesus spoke in parables
3) The Holy Spirit represents the articulators who articulate the new language in common language - the Apostles, Paul

Jesus - the work of art working (or the dawn of private sin)
Lecture14
Jesus - you break the law even if you desire another woman. Opposed to the jewish public law system where to break the law is something public, could never be a private matter.
Jesus bases his reconfiguration of Jewish law in the 10th commandment - will not covet my neighbors stuff. The term COVET refers to something internal, not publicly discernible.
Paul points this out. Cannot control coveting, so everybody is guilty of breaking the law. Paul 13 corinthians. Major paradigm shift from jewish to Christian. Paul articulated jesus the reconfigurer
Move from following the law at all cost to following the spirit of the law. 
Paul dead because of law that says his desires are to be repressed, who can suppress desire? Must get out of that. Must present a new mood, agape love. Reborn through agape love than transforms you from one guilty from ones desires.

Dante inferno: attempt at merging the greek tradition with Judeo-Christian traditions - fail 

Not many understood Paul. Augustine platinize Christianity by ignoring the body and raising the abstract. Aquinas applies Aristotle's conception of body to Christianity. Dante after Aquinas illustrates Aristotelianism. 

Virgil the stoic philosopher.

Virgil explains inferno as Aristotle like gradations of bad, but Dante knows better

At the entrance to dis or hades Virgil thinks its a prison, but Dreyfus thinks its a fortress to keep people out. The people inside the wall have set their lives for themselves , not the preset plan set by God.

Aristotle and St. Tomas Aquinas - two types of sin carnal and spiritual.  Inferno divided up by carnal sin outside wall, spiritual or will against God and his plan inside.

 The more in sin the further from God the one that animates, so the inferno is like ice at the core. People cant move. Satan is frozen. The flapping of his wings freezes hell and the absolute center of hell is his asshole, the most un celestial kind of matter. Similar to Aristotle's gradations from Earth to heavens.

Virgil the stoic does not get spiritual sin or going against Gods plan, so not let in the fortress. Stoic uses will power to not pursue pleasers too much since the world is ultimately unfulfilling. Stoic life is diametrically opposed to a christian total devotion, romantic love is alien. Beatrice takes the place of Jesus for Dante. Beatrice gets rid of the will to resist, to love hierarchically is to open yourself to the predetermined glory of God.

Martian Luther fed up with Aristotle being injected into christianity, calls for the elimination of Aristotelianism.

Dante monotheist no room for other works.

Melvil's Moby Dick- 

Understands the greek and christian mess, wants to get back to homeric acceptance of different worlds.

The dichotomy of the sea and land. Land is safe and stable slow deliberate planing in ones life. Sea is chaotic and ever-changing an has no bottom no way of rational planing

Two ways of dealing with a groundless world..science or existentialist.
Balkington represents a kind of Nietzscheian overman, yet differs in that the free spirit style of life is unlivable. Maple the preacher represented a Kierkegaard, but is also rejected. Melvil wants the return of homeric polytheism.

Whiteness represents the unified theories, meanings and perspectives in that they would cancel each other out. So in his polytheism one should not strive to unify all the different colors or meanings but let your self be attuned to this or that  color or mood. Live the rainbow not the blank nihilism of white light.

Melvil - a polytheism where the Gods are real... Non nihilistic 
Nietzsche - a polytheism where we create the Gods ...nihilism