A sense of certainty and unhesitating confidence is rare in the contemporary world. An unrelenting flow of choices confronts us at nearly every moment of our lives, and if we are honest about it then most of us will admit that we waver in the face of them.
Dreyfus and Kelly examine some of the greatest books in the Western Canon to explain that the burden of choice is essentially a modern problem to which there is an age old solution. Dreyfus and Kelly explain the huge jump from Homer's polytheistic world to the monotheistic one in which Dante wrote his Divine Comedy and Martin Luther wrote his ninety-five theses. They then take the reader forward to the rejection of this Christian ideal, to the Superman of Nietzsche and further onto the spiritual cornucopia of Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
Arrivingat the ennui and emptiness that pervades our modern world in which the work of Elizabeth Gilbert and David Foster Wallace arose, Dreyfus and Kelly offer a new-and very old-way to embrace the world, a fresh way to live a meaningful life in a secular world
By:
Hubert Dreyfus, Sean Dorrance Kelly Imprint: The Free Press Country of Publication: United States Dimensions:
Height: 214mm,
Width: 140mm,
Spine: 18mm
Weight: 277g ISBN:9781416596165 ISBN 10: 141659616X Pages: 272 Publication Date:09 August 2011 Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
Reviews for All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age
[A]n inspirational book but a highly intelligent and impassioned one. compelling. The Wall Street Journal
