Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly: Searching for Meaning in a Secular Age

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes philosophy professors Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Kelly for a discussion of their book, All Things Shining. Drawing on their reading of Western classics, Dreyfus and Kelly analyzehow 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.