Bookmark and Share

Series host Harry Kreisler interviews UC Berkeley’s Hubert Dreyfus and Harvard’s Sean Dorrance Kelly, Professors of Philosphy.

harry bio.jpgRecognizing the nerd in all of us, Guernica brings you Conversations with History, a video series of interviews with distinguished intellectuals conducted by creator and executive producer Harry Kreisler and produced by the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.

In this week’s episode, Kreisler welcomes philosophy professors Hubert Dreyfus of Berkeley and Sean Dorrance Kelly of Harvard for a discussion of their book,All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age. Drawing on their reading of Western classics, Dreyfus and Kelly analyze how different epochs offered unique answers to the question of what is sacred and what can provide meaning for human existence. The conversation explores the examples of Homer, Jesus, and Melville to highlight differing paradigms of culture practice. Dreyfus and Kelly then trace the transition to the secular age in which nihilism prevails. They conclude by identifying how a sense of meaning and of the sacred emerges in situations such as heroism, athletics, and craftsmanship.

________________________________________________________________________

Harry Kreisler is also the Executive Director of the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. In that role, he shapes, administers, and implements interdisciplinary academic and public affairs programs that analyze global issues.

  Rebecca Solnit: Hope: The Care and Feeding Of: How it will all end is anybody’s guess, but the future remains wide open. You just have to open your eyes. More
 
  Rob Goodman: When Words Fail: The Tree of Life and Bad Religious Art: Why does being caught in contradictions often make us hold on to them even tighter? More
     
  Adam Lee: Goodbye Religion? How Godlessness Is Increasing With Each New Generation: In recent years, this demographic transformation has seriously picked up steam. More
 
  Brendan Kiely: A Question of Belief: An attack under the name of faith in the face of equity. More

To read more blog entries from GUERNICA click HERE .

SUBSCRIBE TO GUERNICA’S RSS FEED

At Guernica, we’ve spent the last 15 years producing uncompromising journalism.

More than 80% of our finances come from readers like you. And we’re constantly working to produce a magazine that deserves you—a magazine that is a platform for ideas fostering justice, equality, and civic action.

If you value Guernica’s role in this era of obfuscation, please donate.

Help us stay in the fight by giving here.