Philosophy 6 Lecture August 28, 2008 Big Question: What is it like to be in worlds of books? What are Great Works, why should we study them? (Not necessarily a book) Humanists believe they reveal insights into human nature. Dreyfus and existentialists reject this. Custom is our nature. - Pascal. Culture shapes human nature, thus no universal truth of human nature. But aren't there universal truths like love? There are different conceptions of love in different cultures. Heidegger wrote Being and Time in 1927. Believes our culture has had a series of worlds. (e.g. Greek, Medieval) They each have different perspectives and something of each is still around. Humanists think understanding gets better and better. Dreyfus thinks all the books are good. End of course challenge: Dreyfus believes books have been losing it since Homer. What is style? Greek life is a lot like modern life, except they have Gods. Dreyfus says they represent moods. Aphrodite erotic mood, Aries angry mood, etc. Read why Helen runs off to Troy. Pay attention to moods. Is there a contradiction? We want to throw ourselves into Homer's world, but cannot. We have remnants of their culture in ours. Cultural concepts Homeric Greeks have heroes and slaves. Heroes are self-sufficient, slaves let people control them. <a href="/keyword/middle-ages/" >middle ages</a> have saints and sinners. Saints have humility, compassion, sinners do not. Luther ushers in modern era. Descartes introduces notion of subjects and objects. Subjects are self-sufficient, objects get manipulated. Humans are autonomous, obey no one but themselves. Dreyfus believes we are in postmodern era where the goal is to get the most out of our possibilities. A Greek hero would be viewed as a sinner in <a href="/keyword/middle-ages/" >middle ages</a> . Aren't possible in different times. Every trivial detail of behavior, such as how far we stand apart, becomes integrated into a culture's style. Style is so close to us that we cannot recognize. Invisible since: So embodied, it is furthest from the self. So pervasive, we lack context. Got to be invisible to work. Man can embody truth, but he cannot know it. - Yeates. The truth of our being is in our style, but we can't actually know it. How do we get to know style? Job of a Great Work of art is to glamorize style so that it shines . Marilyn Monroe is work of art, embodied style of her time. Like a goddess. Once people recognize style, they can preserve it, enhance it, or rebel against it.